A 31-year-old man was acquitted in the High Court in Suva on Tuesday after he was found not guilty by Justice Riyaz Hamza for raping his male cousin.

The assessors in the case returned a not guilty opinion.

Justice Hamza described the assessors’ opinion as justified and said the prosecution had failed to prove the charge of rape against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

The complainant testified that on the night of July 6, 2014, he went to a relative’s house to drink with the accused and three other cousins. He then went to the toilet.

The complainant said while he was inside the toilet the accused allegedly entered the toilet and forcibly raped him.

Within a minute or so his cousin entered the toilet and pulled the accused out and the complainant was taken out of the washroom accordingly.

The complainant then begged his cousin to drop him home.

He recalled the time was around 12 midnight.

The complainant said when he arrived home everyone was sleeping, therefore he did not tell anyone about what allegedly happened.

He testified that he woke up the next day with body aches and pain and was scared, traumatised and embarrassed about the alleged incident.

The complainant then decided to pack his bags and run away from home to his nursing school at Tamavua.

He said he also noticed two bite marks on his neck, but when questioned whether he recalled how he got the bite marks he said he did not know, but he only recalled that the only person present inside the toilet was the accused.

The next morning on July 7, 2014, while the complainant was leaving home for nursing school, he met a relative on his driveway.

He told his relative that his four cousins had taken him to another relative’s house then he showed him the bite marks on his neck.

After reaching nursing school the complainant informed his close friends about the alleged incident.

He said he confided in his friends because he wanted to share his feelings with someone.

He testified that he had been emotionally traumatised by the incident.

In cross examination the defence showed inconsistencies in the complainant’s Police statement.

In his statement he stated, “I got really drunk…”

However, the complainant denied it while giving evidence in court and he answered by saying he drank only three bottles of beer.

Furthermore, in his Police statement the complainant said he could not recall who allegedly raped him.

The complainant also denied that he made a second Police statement on February 10, 2015, and denied that the signatures on the statement were his.

Edited by Epineri Vula

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