Father and son walk free

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A father and son left the High Court in Suva with an enormous weight off their shoulders after charges of rape against them were withdrawn and their cases dismissed by Justice Daniel Goundar.

The two were to stand trial but State prosecutor Kimberly Semisi filed a nolle prosequi for both their matters.

The court was told that their daughter and sister made the allegations against them and later wrote to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, saying that she made false allegations against her father and brother after she began a relationship with someone in the West, where she now lived.

The court was also told the father and brother did not approve of the relationship and she and her new partner hatched the plan.

When asked by Justice Goundar as to why it took so long for the charges to be withdrawn, Ms Semisi said it wasn’t until after the matter was set for trial that the woman who was attending counselling with the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre wrote to the ODPP saying that she wanted the charges withdrawn because she had made them up.

The father and son’s lawyer said the letters of withdrawal were never disclosed to the defence and that the two innocent men were suffering from day one.

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