In Brief
A man convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl appealed his seven-year prison sentence. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and acquitted him. The Court found that while a school register showed the girl's birthdate as 1987 (making her under 16 at the time), this entry lacked proper authentication and the prosecution conducted no scientific age verification test. The girl's medical examination indicated she was sixteen, fully developed, and showed no injury signs. The Court also noted suspicious circumstances: the alleged rape occurred on a date the girl attended school elsewhere, she delayed reporting by over a month, and the boy's family had initially accepted a marriage proposal. The Court held the prosecution failed to prove both her minority status and that intercourse was non-consensual, so reasonable doubt favoured the accused."
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