By rnz.co.nz and is republished with permission
An Australian pilot serving an 18-year jail term for his connection to drug trafficking has this week lost his appeal in the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court.
David John Cutmore was the pilot of an aircraft trying to fly from Central Province to Australia, carrying 611kg of cocaine.
The plane crashed on take-off from a makeshift airfield outside Port Moresby in July 2020.
Cutmore was jailed for 18 years in October 2022 after pleading guilty to a charge relating to money laundering.
Last year, another four people — three Papua New Guineans and an Italian — connected to the so-called “black flight” were sentenced in the National Court.
The three-man bench comprising Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika, Justice Ere Kariko and Justice Vergil Narokobi ordered that the appeal against Cutmore’s sentence be dismissed.
Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika said the sentence of 18 years’ jail with light labour was confirmed.
He said the majority of the bench agreed that the trial judge, Judge Teresa Berrigan, did not err in her consideration of Cutmore’s medical condition.
“The sentence of 18 years was not excessive in the circumstances,” he said.
“The use of the country as a transit point for drug trafficking and the use of PNG nationals as drug mules must be strongly opposed with stiff penalties.”
Cutmore was also convicted of illegally entering the country and breaching the Civil Aviation Act for flying without a licence and crashing.
He was fined 37,000 kina ($16,009 NZD) for the charges and detained at the Bomana Prison for being unable to pay.
