26-year-old Ashneel Naicker has been found not guilty and acquitted in a case concerning the issue of consent within an intimate relationship.
While delivering his ruling, Suva High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar said the prosecution failed to prove Naicker's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The complainant told the court that on 29th April, Naicker did not stop when she asked him to, while Naicker testified that she had insisted and later turned physical during the incident.
Justice Goundar says consent must be freely and voluntarily given, and a woman has the right to refuse consent.
He further says that Naicker’s evidence was consistent, logical, and convincing, while the complainant’s evidence was less coherent and less persuasive.
Justice Goundar adds that he accepted Naicker’s version that the complainant had initiated and consented to intercourse, as she had done previously in their relationship.
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