A man accused of striking his uncle in the face with a chainsaw has been acquitted by the High Court in Labasa after the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
In a judgment delivered on June 25, Justice Lee James Burney acquitted Samuela Tuinaka, who had been charged with one count of an act with intent to cause grievous harm.
The charge stemmed from an incident at Vusasivo Village, Cakaudrove, on April 16, 2024, where the prosecution alleged that Mr Tuinaka intentionally wounded his uncle, Petaia Lutu, by striking him in the face with a chainsaw during a land dispute.
The court heard that Mr Lutu, who had since died from causes unrelated to the incident, had confronted Tuinaka who was cutting trees on family land.
The prosecution relied primarily on the evidence of Mr Lutu’s grandson, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident and testified that he saw Mr Tuinaka swing a chainsaw twice at his grandfather.
However, Justice Burney expressed concerns about the reliability of the child’s recollection of events nearly two years after the alleged incident, particularly as no contemporaneous witness statement had been recorded.
The court also found the medical evidence did not support the prosecution’s account that a running chainsaw had struck the complainant.
Mr Tuinaka testified that he had been cutting trees on his mother’s land when his uncle approached him angrily and attempted to strike him with an axe. He told the court he used the chainsaw to defend himself and accidentally threw it toward the victim while trying to avoid further blows.
Justice Burney found the defence account to be plausible and ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish that it was untrue.
