Noumea Prison

Despot Chs

20 Years

From FRED DUNN, in Noumea Late in May, one of the mos. sensational trials in New Cale donia’s history ended. Hem Pommelet ( ex ) head warder a Camp Est Prison was sentencei to 20 years’ hard labour fa

savagely beating three prisoners

one of whom later died. The si: Melanesian warders who helpei him assault the prisoners wer

awarded sentences ranging fror

five to 12 years hard labour.

The men had been charged witl beating three prisoners who hai escaped from the prison on Christma Eve, 1966, and had been capture* six days later. The prisoners wer Max Arsapin, 25, Brizou and Olliviei The latter two were serving prisoi sentences and Arsapin was in pre ventive custody waiting to appea in court.

Arsapin died on a plane that wa flying him to Sydney for medical at tendon.

During the opening days of thi trial the public gallery was packed but interest lagged as the trial prc ceeded. Only a few spectators wer there to hear the verdict.

The details of the beatings, give: at the trial, were gruesome.

One of the victims showed trace of 70 blows when examined by doctor. Rubber truncheons had bee; used, and it was alleged that Pom melet gave orders that strict atter tion be paid to the genital organs., The victims of the beating wer not given immediate medical atter tion. Pommelet did not present th injured men to the doctor when h did his round of the prison. Evidenc suggested that had the men bee presented for treatment Arsapii would not have died.

Pommelet’s evidence at the tris was inconsistent. At one stage h said that he was drunk at the tim of the assaults, and that he re membered little or nothing.

Later he tried to put the blame o< his Melanesian subordinates, sug gesting that he had been draw into the “corrections” by these mer and that he remembered little ths had occurred.

The six Melanesian warders dt fended themselves by saying ths

they “had to obey the orders of the chief.”

The court heeded the Procurer Gen eral’s suggestion that some clemency be shown to the six natives —but only to the extent of knocking a year or two off the sentences asked for.

Often in tears, the six men were almost as much to be pitied as their victims.

The evidence showed a state of affairs existing at the Camp Est Prison that was hardly credible.

Pommelet was the absolute master of the prison and brooked no in tereference. His order was law even to his European colleagues.

Pommelet had once threatened a warder with his revolver, it was alleged.

Investigations into brutal incidents alleged to have taken place at camp Est Prison have been ordered by the Procurer General.

The young New Caledonian lawyer, Reuter, defended Pommelet.

At one point he asked for an ad journment, saying that he wished to have Pommelet’s chromosomes counted.

Press attacked

He submitted to the court an article from a French newspaper stating that a man born with two “Y” chromo somes could commit acts of violence for which he could not be held re sponsible.

Reuter told the court that he had shown the article to a local doctor who had said that if Pommelet was found to have two “Y” chromosomes then extenuating circumstances could be applied to his crime.

A charge against Pommelet’s son, who had been present during the assaults, was dismissed at the trial.

The local Press came under fire from the defending lawyers for hav ing given the Camp Est affair an exaggerated importance.

Local newspapers, even the staid daily France Australe bitterly de fended themselves.

Asked the Voix du Cagou: “What were we to do with the story, bury it as so many scandals have been buried before?”

In late May damages of $5,000 each were awarded to the two sur viving victims of the assaults.

Arsapin’s father received $3,000.

The seven convicted men have lodged appeals against their sentences to the Court of Cassation, which can order a new trial if it finds any fault in the conduct of the earlier trial, but cannot alter the sentences.