THE High Court in Suva has found a senior IT executive guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a subordinate employee at her residence.
Justice Daniel Goundar convicted the 31-year-old man on July 10 of one representative count of rape and one count of sexual assault committed against the 24-year-old victim, an IT professional.
The charges stem from an incident in the early hours of June 28, 2025, at the victim’s residence in Samabula. The court heard that the man, who had been in a prior consensual relationship with the victim before becoming her line manager, arrived at her flat drunk after a night out.
He then forced his way in and committed the sexual acts without her consent while ignoring her repeated physical and verbal pleas to stop.
The court noted that the complainant, as the sole breadwinner for her family, faced a severe power imbalance that complicated her ability to immediately sever ties or resign.
Her eventual decision to come forward was prompted by the subsequent, unauthorised circulation of explicit intimate images to her family and friends, which led her to seek help from the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre.
A sentencing hearing has been set for July 17.
