Suva Man’s Lawyer To File No Case To Answer In Second Case

Defence lawyer, Hemendra Nagin asked the witness whether the second complainant had told him what to say in court. The witness said no.

Wednesday 17 March 2021 | 09:22

Defence will file a no case to answer today in the second complainant’s case against a Suva man who is on trial for indecent assault charges.

This is after hearing the testimony of a witness for the second complainant’s case.

The accused is charged with three counts of indecent assault.

For the first two counts, the accused allegedly assaulted the first complainant on two separate occasions between June and September, 2019.

For the third count, the accused allegedly assaulted a second complainant in May, 2019.

Witness testimony

The second complainant’s former partner told the court on Day 2 of the trial yesterday that on the night of the alleged incident, they walked to the accused’s office.

Afterwards, the second complainant spoke about the incident where the accused allegedly asked her personal questions, hugged her, rubbed her back and sniffed her.

In cross-examination, the witness said that following the complainant’s evidence in court on Monday, he met with the complainant and maintained that they did not talk about the case.

Defence lawyer, Hemendra Nagin asked the witness whether the second complainant had told him what to say in court. The witness said no.

Mr Nagin asked the witness whether he read a Facebook post about the first complainant’s claims.

The witness said he did not remember.

Thereafter, Mr Nagin showed the witness the Facebook printout and asked if he agreed if the first complainant’s post were similar to that of the second complainant’s alleged ac-count. The witness said yes.

In re-examination, Joeli Nasa from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, questioned the witness whether the Facebook post, had any influence on the second complainant reporting the matter.

The witness testified that it did because she had allegedly gone through the same incident.

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