The final judgement by High Court judge Justice Vincent Perera will be handed down on Monday.

All three assessors said former Police officer, Michael Shalendra Pratap, was guilty of three counts each of rape and guilty of an alternative count of indecent assault. They gave their opinion at the High Court in Suva yesterday.

The High Court judge Justice Vincent Perera has remanded Pratap until he hands down his judgment on Monday.

Pratap is alleged to have raped a teenage girl in Suva on January 22, 2016.

During summing up Justice Perera said that the prosecution had said that the complainant was scared to tell her parents of the incident as she thought that they would beat her up or hate her after hearing about the alleged rape.

The complainant while giving evidence earlier this week, said the alleged incident that took place in an old gym in Nasese, lasted for an hour. She had told the court that the accused had a tattoo of a rose on his leg.

It was also mentioned by Justice Perera that the matter came to light when the victim went to the health centre on February 2 last year and had met a civilian staff Teresia Vakanu at the Nasova Medical Clinic to whom she had relayed the alleged incident.

The complainant had told Ms Vakanu of the times Pratap had approached her at school and even when she went to the shop.

She had told Ms Vakanu that Pratap was working at the stores at the Police Academy in Nasese and had a green vehicle which had the words ‘arch angel Michael’ printed on it.

Pratap had denied all allegations but had agreed that he was the only Police officer working at the stores that had a green vehicle.

Ms Vakanu also said that the complainant said that on a separate occasion Pratap had pulled her, tied her hands and dragged her into the gym.  He then raped her between 5pm to 5.30pm.

When she screamed he closed her mouth and told her if she screamed he would rape her again or do something bad to her.

Pratap is represented by Legal Aid Commission lawyer, Mohammed Yunus.

Justice Perera said that the defence maintained their alibi that during the time of the alleged offence Pratap was with his wife whom he had gone to pick up from work around 4.30pm on that day.

The judgment by Justice Perera will be handed down on Monday.

Edited by Rusiate Matika

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