Appeal judges quash rape conviction

13 June 2012

A man jailed in 2009 for raping a woman in Belfast has had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal Northern Ireland.

Senior judges ruled the guilty verdict returned against Tonderai Chakwana was unsafe after hearing of an undisclosed alteration to his accuser’s statement.

His solicitor, Clive Neville of Trevor Smyth and Co, said: “The issue of the non-disclosure of edits to the original statement is of huge importance. At no stage until the CCRC got hold of this statement did the PPS lawyer alert anyone to this.”

Garden Court North Chambers’ Mark Barlow and Matthew Stanbury represented Mr Chakwana, instructed by Clive Neville of Trevor Smyth and Co.