Public Prosecutor v Kavila
SENTENCE
A. Introduction
1. Mr Timothy Kavila, you appear for sentence today having pleaded guilty to attempted intentional homicide where the homicide is not premeditated contrary to subs. 28(1) and para. 106(1)(a) of the Penal Code [CAP. 135] (Count 1) and intentional assault causing damage of a permanent nature contrary to para. 107(c) of the Penal Code (Count 2). You have been convicted on your own pleas and the admitted facts.
B. Facts
2. At the time of the offending, you were 55 years old. The complainant is your wife. She was 45 years old.
3. On 25 June 2025, you were released on parole.
4. On 14 September 2025 morning, at Teouma Valley area on Efate island, you told the complainant to walk with you to your youngest brother’s house to attend a meeting about her allegedly having had affairs with other men and having alcoholic drinks purchased for her while you were imprisoned.
5. The two of you set off, with the complainant carrying some empty bottles to fetch rainwater. As you walked past a yard that your brother was taking care of, you told the complainant that the men who were buying her drinks must come to the meeting with a dead cow so that you could sell it. The complainant responded to you, “Be yu nogat forgiveness long heart blong yu, olsem bae mi go bak long ol family blong mi nomo” (‘But you have no forgiveness in your heart – so I should just go back to my family.’) You then told her, “Beh ol family blong yu nao I putum mi go long prison” (‘But it is your family who put me into prison.’)
6. You became angry and told her that the two of you would go to the small island (Teouma Valley). She told you to wait while she got some rainwater. You then pushed her to the side, grabbed a short knife and struck her once on the backside of her head, cutting her from the back of her head from her neck to her left ear. She cried out loud and called your brother’s name which caused him to run towards you but you pointed the knife at him and told him not to come near you.
7. The complainant, already injured, tried to remove the knife from you but you struck her again with the knife and chopped off her right ring finger and cut her right middle finger.
8. Your brother and other relatives came and tried to help the complainant but you told them not to help her or call ProMedical or the ambulance to come and help her. She was bleeding for almost an hour before they managed around 8-9pm at night to assist her by getting one of her friends to come and drive her to the hospital for medical assistance. You went with them in the truck to the hospital and told the complainant that if the doctors asked how she came about her injury, to tell them that you were cleaning your garden when you cut and missed, cutting her. The doctors at the hospital Emergency Department helped the complainant. After that, she lodged her complaint with the Police.
9. Dr Ricky Mera examined the complainant then made a medical report dated 14 September 2025 containing the following:
a) Patient was in extreme pain with multiple lacerations secondary to a knife;
b) Deep posterior (output) laceration measuring 7cm in length involving the left ear (cut through cartilage);
c) Amputation of 4th finger at proximal interphalangeal joint; and
d) Laceration to the middle phalange of the 3rd finger involving the exterior tendon and bone.
10. On 28 October 2025, Dr Ricky Mera also made a Police witness statement stating that if the injury was a bit lower and the complainant did not defend herself and avoid the attack, that she would have sustained injury on her major vessels (carotid artery) and she would have bled to death.
11. On 15 September 2025, Sergeant Nina Biagk of the Vanuatu Police Force attended at the hospital and took eight photographs of the complainant’s injuries:
a) Picture 1: Overall view of the victim with her injury on the left side of her head;
b) Picture 2: Medium view of the injury on the left side of her head;
c) Picture 3: Closer view of the injury on the left side of her head;
d) Picture 4: Closer view of her right ring finger that was cut off;
e) Picture 5: Overall view of the complainant on the hospital bed with her injuries;
f) Picture 6: Close-up view of her injury on the left side of her head covered with a white bandage;
g) Picture 7: Close-up view of her right finger covered with a white bandage; and
h) Picture 8: Overall view of the bush knife that was used to cut the complainant.
12. On 15 September 2025, you were interviewed under caution at the Serious Crime Unit in Port Vila. You admitted the offending.
13. On 19 December 2025, you were recalled into custody by the Parole Board.
C. Sentence Start Point
14. The sentence start point is assessed having regard to the maximum sentences available, and the mitigating and aggravating factors of the offending.
15. The maximum sentences provided in the Penal Code are:
a) Attempted intentional homicide where the homicide is not premeditated – 20 years imprisonment (subs. 28(1) and para. 106(1)(a)); and
b) Intentional assault causing damage of a permanent nature – 10 years imprisonment (para. 107(c)).
16. There are no mitigating aspects to the offending however, it is aggravated by the following:
a) Gross breach of trust;
b) Unprovoked attack on the complainant;
c) The use of a weapon (knife);
d) The level of force used in the assault (two blows);
e) Pointing the knife at those who rushed to the complainant’s aid and preventing them from helping her. She was bleeding for almost an hour before one of her friends finally managed to help her by driving her to the hospital;
f) Telling the complainant to lie about how she received her injuries; and
g) The effect upon the complainant including the pain and injuries inflicted, including to her head which is the most vulnerable part of the body.
17. The global sentence start point that I adopt, taking all matters into account, is 10 years imprisonment.
D. Personal Factors
18. In this case, there is added culpability because you offended while on parole: Public Prosecutor v Samuel [2019] VUCA 76 at [28]-[30] and PP v Andy [2011] VUCA 14 at [17], cited in Philip v Public Prosecutor [2020] VUCA 40 at [21].
19. Parole was granted to you, on medical grounds, in respect of the 12 years 6 months sentences of imprisonment that the Court of Appeal imposed on you in Kavila v Public Prosecutor [2022] VUCA 36; Criminal Appeal Case No. 2155 of 2022 (18 November 2022). In that case, you were convicted and sentenced on five charges of sexual intercourse without consent, a charge of act of indecency without consent, a charge of threat to kill a person and a charge of intentional assault against a female relative of your wife. The sentence appealed in Kavila v Public Prosecutor [2022] VUCA 36 was a 16-year sentence of imprisonment imposed on 4 October 2017 in CRC 17/753.
20. The grant of parole to you appears to have overlooked that on 14 June 2018, you were further sentenced in Public Prosecutor v Kavila [2018] VUSC 100; CRC 17/2854 in respect of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, one count of abduction, two counts of intentional assault and one count of act of indecency without consent against a young girl of 15 years of age. Your received an end sentence of 8 years imprisonment, which is to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed on you in CRC 17/753. You have not appealed that sentence.
21. Accordingly, you have an active cumulative sentence of 20 years 6 months imprisonment which commenced on 12 July 2017, and was interrupted only by the period of your release on parole from 25 June 2025 to 19 December 2025.
22. Taking your prior convictions into account as well as your offending whilst on parole, both of which are relevant to your culpability, I impose an uplift of 12 months imprisonment.
23. Any questions of parole for yourself are a matter for the Parole Board. But it may be of assistance to them if I point out that your release on parole on medical grounds did not stop you committing serious offending whilst on parole. You have shown that whenever you are free in the community you pose an extreme danger to the community, particularly to those around you. There is nothing to suggest in this, and earlier cases, that you have any true insight into your offending. In my view, you are highly likely to reoffend if released into the community.
24. You have not pleaded guilty at the first opportunity although by pleading guilty to Count 1 on the date set for trial, you have spared the complainant the ordeal of trial. You previously pleaded guilty to Count 2 on 17 February 2026. I also take into account that the Prosecution case against you was strong. Accordingly, I deduct 10% (12 months) from the sentence start point for your early guilty pleas.
25. You are 56 years old. You are married to the complainant and have five children. You are a primary school leaver. You are unemployed; you relied on your wife’s employment as a security officer. You have coronary artery disease requiring lifelong medications and regular medical follow-up. You cooperated with the Police. You have not paid any custom compensation to the complainant, but she told the pre-sentence report writer that she will not accept any reconciliation with you and that she will be filing for divorce and seeking compensation.
26. Following the offending in the present matter, you were arrested and then remanded in custody on 15 September 2025. On 19 December 2025, the Parole Board issued a Recall Order ending your parole. Accordingly, I count the period that you served in custody from 15 September 2025 to 18 December 2025 (3 months 4 days) as time served in respect of the present matter because from 19 December 2025 onwards, you have resumed serving the sentences of imprisonment that the Court of Appeal imposed on you in Kavila v Public Prosecutor [2022] VUCA 36; Criminal Appeal Case No. 2155 of 2022 (18 November 2022). That period of 3 months 4 days time served in custody was an effective term of imprisonment of 6 months 1 week, therefore I deduct a further 6 months 1 week from the sentence start point.
27. I would therefore have entered an end sentence of 9 years 5 months and 3 weeks, however I must stand back and look at the totality of the sentence. Given that you already have a cumulative sentence to serve of 20 years 6 months imprisonment, I consider that the appropriate end sentence in the present matter is 8 years imprisonment.
E. End Sentence
28. Taking all matters into account, the end sentences imposed concurrently are:
a) Attempted intentional homicide where the homicide is not premeditated (Count 1) 8 years imprisonment; and
b) Intentional assault causing damage of a permanent nature (Count 2) 5 years imprisonment.
29. As I have said, you are currently serving the sentences of imprisonment imposed by the Court of Appeal in Kavila v Public Prosecutor; Criminal Appeal Case No. 2155 of 2022 (18 November 2022) and by the Supreme Court in Public Prosecutor v Kavila [2018] VUSC 100; CRC 17/2854 per Saksak J, totalling 20 years 6 months imprisonment.
30. Accordingly, the end sentences imposed today are to be cumulative and therefore will commence once you have completed the imprisonment sentences imposed on you in Kavila v Public Prosecutor [2022] VUCA 36 and Public Prosecutor v Kavila [2018] VUSC 100 totalling 20 years 6 months imprisonment.
F. Suspension
31. The Court has a discretion under s. 57 of the Penal Code to suspend all or part of the sentence where it is not appropriate to make an offender suffer immediate imprisonment “… (i) in view of the circumstances; and (ii) in particular the nature of the crime; and (iii) the character of the offender.”
32. The offending is serious. It involved unprovoked violence and has caused the complainant permanent serious injuries: Tari v Public Prosecutor [2011] VUCA 26. You have multiple prior convictions and are currently serving sentences of imprisonment. Your health issues resulted in your being released on parole on medical grounds, yet you went on to commit serious, violent offending two months after your release. I consider therefore that your health issues cannot warrant any suspension of sentence as the offending is too serious hence community protection and safety needs to come to the fore as well as deterrence and denunciation of this criminal conduct. Given those factors, the sentences will not be suspended.
33. You have 14 days to appeal the sentence.
DATED at Port Vila this 25th day of May, 2026
BY THE COURT
………………………………………….
Justice Viran Molisa Trief