Micah Umm, Noel Ninibil and Zebedee Luwi sentenced over ‘terrifying’ rape

Three PNG farm workers who deprived a 21-year-old woman of her liberty and took her to a ‘dark, remote area’ where a rape occurred have been sentenced in Townsville’s District Court.

White Horse Tavern in Charters Towers. Pictrue: Evan Morgan

Three PNG farm workers who deprived a 21-year-old woman of her liberty and took her to a ‘dark, remote area’ where a rape occurred have been sentenced in Townsville’s District Court on Monday.

Before the court were Micah Umm, 29, who had pleaded guilty to one count of rape and Noel Ninibil, 34, and Zebedee Luwi, 31, who had been found guilty on March 15 by a District Court jury of deprivation of liberty, and one count of rape.

The three men, who had been working at a watermelon farm near Charters Towers, had been drinking at the White Horse Tavern in Charters Towers in the early hours of December 5, 2021.

Judge Gregory Lynham said he accepted the version of complainant and victim, Miss B, who told the court that Ninibil had offered her a lift to the nearby McDonalds store after leaving the pub, after 2am.

He said from there she was driven to the Macrossan Bridge on the Flinders Highway, despite asking the men to stop and let her out of the vehicle.

“From there the complainant obviously became a bit confused and said Umm had not left the vehicle, nor had he raped her,” he said.

He said Umm’s guilty plea and DNA evidence showed he had in fact raped Miss B and both Luwi and Ninibil were a party to the rape.

Judge Lynham said neither Luwi nor Ninibil had left the area, nor ‘descended on Mr Umm’ while he was raping the complainant.

“The offending must have been a terrifying one,” he said.

Mr Lynham described the circumstances of the offending by Luwi and Ninibil as ‘somewhat unusual’ because they were party to the rape but were not involved in a ‘physical sense... not as principal offenders’.

The court heard that Luwi had served 836 days in pre-sentence custody, Ninibil had served 832, but Umm had only served 17 days.

Umm was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, with a parole date set of November 8, 2026, after he had served two years and eight months of the sentence.

Mr Lynham sentenced Luwi and Ninibil to seven years’ jail, without a parole date being set, this means the pair will have to serve 50 per cent of their sentence which equates to three and a half years.

Luwi and Ninibil are expected to appeal against their sentences.

Originally published as Micah Umm, Noel Ninibil and Zebedee Luwi sentenced over ‘terrifying’ rape