High Court Judge Justice Vincent Perera has found 29‑year‑old Jone Vakarisi Junior not guilty of one count of arson and one count of assault causing actual bodily harm.
While delivering his judgement, Justice Perera said that he had found inconsistencies in the evidence given by the first prosecution witness who was also the complainant in the assault case.
He said that the witness’s version of the incident kept changing from what he had initially said in his caution interview by the police.
Justice Perera also told Prosecution Lawyer Eoghn Samisoni that it was his duty as the prosecutor to conduct further investigation and strengthen his case.
He told Samisoni that whatever Police brings should not be the only evidence given in court.
The three assessors in the case had earlier found Vakarisi guilty of the one count of assault causing actual bodily harm while they found him not guilty of one count of arson.
The incident was alleged to have happened between the 5th to the 6th of September.
