Convicted murderer Sairusi Ceinaturaga will be sentenced today for the brutal killing of his one-year-old stepson at Vunidawa Settlement in Cunningham on October 17 last year.
Ceinaturaga was found guilty of one count of assault on his de facto partner and one count of murder by Justice Siainiu Fa’alogo Bull at the High Court in Suva last week.
According to court records, the de facto partner had lived with the 37-year-old for about three to four months before the incident. Initially, she took only her four-year-old child with her when she moved in. In October 2024, she brought the victim, her younger child, to live with them. The couple would often fight, and Ceinaturaga assaulted and punched her daily.
She testified during the trial that Ceinaturaga did not like the children living with them, and he would also hit them every day. On October 17, he left for work around 8 am but returned an hour later. As soon as he arrived home, he began complaining about the victim being with her while she was doing housework.
Sometime before midday, Ceinaturaga returned to the house and went to the room where the two children were sleeping. She said he bit the victim’s cheek before taking the child to a second bedroom, which had a bed and a mattress on the floor covered with a rug over soil and gravel.
She heard the victim crying while he was with Ceinaturaga. When she checked on them, he swore at her and told her to go away. Her eldest child, crying, came out from the first room into the sitting room.
Ceinaturaga later went to the kitchen and took a long-handled silver cooking spoon. When she asked what he needed it for, he told her it was to hit the victim. He took the spoon and the older child with him to the bedroom where the toddler was.
She said she heard the sound of a slap, and the deceased cried “so badly” for a long time, sounding as though he was in severe pain. When she looked again, she saw the victim lying down while Ceinaturaga attempted to bite his cheek. Her attempts to pull the child away failed as he swore at her and chased her out of the room.
After a while, Ceinaturaga carried the victim over his shoulder, shaking him and running around inside the house for about 10 minutes, attempting to revive him. She noticed blood coming from the victim’s nose and food from his mouth. He was no longer crying, his eyes were red, and his head appeared “slanted” or “tilted.” She placed the victim in the first room before going to get hot water for him to drink.
While she was in the kitchen, she heard the victim say, “Ma.” When she went to check on him, his eyes were closed, and he was not breathing. She told Ceinaturaga they needed to take him to the hospital, but he insisted they wait for his uncle’s vehicle.
Eventually, around 7 pm, they walked to the road and took a taxi to the hospital, leaving the older child at home because Ceinaturaga told her to let him sleep. When they arrived at the Emergency Department, Ceinaturaga told the nurse that the victim had fallen.
They were instructed to wait for the police before the victim’s body was taken to the mortuary.
According to the victim’s older brother, the man smacked his head, hands, and legs before throwing him onto the dirt floor of the room.
