Taliai Tapueluelu (36) and Penitiketo Latu (27) are serving two-years in prison for serious causing bodily harm, when in Neiafu they repeatedly kicked an unconscious man on the head with their boots, in what the Acting Lord Chief Justice described as an outrageous abuse of police powers, when sentencing them.
Two Police officers, Penitiketo Latu and Taliai Tapueluelu, were found guilty of causing serious bodily harm to a young soldier (19), whom they kicked on the mouth, fracturing his jaw using their police boots, as he lay defenceless and unconscious, on the floor of the Neiafu Police Station, in Vava’u in 2021.
The King’s Judicial Appointments and Discipline Panel is looking for a Tongan to replace the Lord Chief Justice Michael Whitten KC of Australia, who completed a four year appointment at the end of August. Meanwhile, the King in Council has appointed Justice Petunia Tupou KC as Acting Lord Chief Justice, Acting President of the Land Court and Acting President of the Court of