Click to view full size

A man ac­cused of sex­u­al of­fences against a mi­nor has lost his ap­peal against a High Court Mas­ter’s re­fusal to dis­charge him af­ter pros­e­cu­tors missed dead­lines for fil­ing ev­i­dence.

In a de­ci­sion de­liv­ered yes­ter­day, Ap­pel­late Judges Mark Mo­hammed and Ge­of­frey Hen­der­son dis­missed the ap­peal, which cen­tred on crim­i­nal jus­tice re­form un­der the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings) Act, 2011 (AJI­PA) and the Crim­i­nal Pro­ce­dure Rules.

De­liv­er­ing the pan­el’s rul­ing, Jus­tice Hen­der­son stat­ed: “The Mas­ter’s ex­er­cise of dis­cre­tion was rea­son­able, law­ful, and con­sis­tent with the prop­er ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice.”