A former chief executive officer at one of Fiji’s biggest companies, who was convicted for indecent assault has been acquitted by the High Court in Suva.

The appeal judgment was delivered by High Court Judge Justice Salesi Temo on Friday.

The man was found guilty of one count of indecent assault in November last year and handed a sentence of 14 months imprison­ment suspended for two years.

The alleged offence took place at the of­fender’s office in Suva on May 15, 2019.

Following his sentencing, the man filed an appeal.

The man had filed 13 grounds in the appeal of his conviction and suspended sentence.

In his judgment, Justice Temo said the court had carefully read the grounds sub­mitted by the appellant.

He said the law required the prosecution to prove the complainant’s allegations against the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt.

He said the burden was on the prosecu­tion throughout the trial to prove their case against the appellant.

He said the court had carefully read and examined the court record, the transcript of the proceedings, the parties’ submissions and all the papers submitted by the parties.

He said in a case of this nature, the allega­tions must be considered within the context in which it was raised including the sur­rounding circumstances.

Justice Temo said in his view the prosecu­tion had not proven its indecent assault al­legation against the appellant beyond a rea­sonable doubt.

He said he was only looking first at the complainant’s version of events and there was no eye witnesses present to confirm her version, especially so when the appellant denied the allegation.

He said there was no CCTV footage avail­able to confirm her version of events.

He said the complainant had damaged her credibility when seen talking to the third prosecution witness during the lunch break, despite the court’s warning not to talk to anyone during the lunch break.

Justice Temo said the third prosecution witness’s credibility was also damaged when he violated the trial court’s warn­ing not to talk to anyone during the lunch break.

He said the complainant’s report seven months later appeared to be a calculated revenge against the appellant for dashing her hope of getting a job at the appellant’s workplace with an $18 to $20 thousand sal­ary compared to $13,000 she was receiving at a ministry.

He said in a nutshell, there was a lot of doubt in the prosecution’s case and the learned Magistrate erred in law and in fact in not recognising it.

Justice said the learned Magistrate erred in law and in fact in not finding that the ap­pellant had no case to answer.

He said given these, the appellant’s appeal against conviction was allowed and pursu­ant to Section 256 (2) (a) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009, the court found the ap­pellant not guilty as charged and acquitted him.

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