Editing Lynching (section)

===Oceania===
====Papua New Guinea====
A series of high-profile lynchings took place in Papua New Guinea in the late 1970s, in the period following independence. In September 1978, Morris Modeda, a 30-year-old man on trial for dangerous driving causing death, was lynched by a mob of 100 people near the town of [[Bereina]]. The lynching took place in front of [[William Prentice]], the [[Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea]], who had adjourned the trial to allow the court to view the site of the accident. Modeda was "battered to death with stones, sticks and a bushknife", while Prentice, his wife, and the court party – including barristers, court officials, witnesses and policemen – were "roughly handled but were not injured".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250340211|title=Chief Justice in Ambush|newspaper=Papua New Guinea Post-Courier|date=September 13, 1978}}</ref> Another prisoner was lynched in the same month in [[Kainantu]] while being escorted from a courthouse, receiving axe wounds in the head and chest.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250341605|title=Lynch mob: defendant axed outside court|newspaper=Papua New Guinea Post-Courier|date=September 22, 1978}}</ref> Days later, the police station at Banz in the [[Western Highlands Province|Western Highlands]] was raided by a mob which freed 50 prisoners and bludgeoned to death a man who had been involved in a fatal car accident.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250341833|title=Axed: Banz police station raid|newspaper=Papua New Guinea Post-Courier|date=September 25, 1978}}</ref>

In 1979, Prentice and his fellow Supreme Court judges delivered the Special Report on the Developing State of Lawlessness to the [[National Parliament of Papua New Guinea]]. The report called on "urgent action to end police and prison staff inefficiency, ignorance and lack of discipline" and called for further support from traditional leaders.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250424976|title=Crime and punishment|newspaper=Papua New Guinea Post-Courier|date=August 28, 1979}}</ref>