KEY POINTS:
The victim of an alleged rape in an Indian restaurant has refused to give evidence at the third trial and all charges have been dropped.
The two-week trial of the two chefs was to start in Christchurch District Court today but the jury panel was sent away for the day after it assembled.
Kirti Ram, 41, and Manish Kumar Tyagi, 31, were discharged after an application by defence counsel Simon Shamy and James Rapley to have the nine remaining charges dismissed.
The Crown did not oppose the application. The contents of the crown memorandum were suppressed by Judge Michael Crosbie, except to say that the complainant was now unwilling to give further evidence, and the Crown was unwilling to insist that she did.
Ram and Tyagi had always denied all the charges.
After they were convicted at the first trial in mid-2006, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial for technical reasons.
At the second trial in November last year, the jury found the two accused not guilty on several charges but could not agree on its verdicts on the remaining nine.
Judge Graeme Noble remanded the men to set a date for the third trial.
At the second trial, the defence contended that the alleged prolonged sexual attack in the central Christchurch restaurant The Two Fat Indians was actually a sex-for-money deal gone wrong.
The Crown said the two men took advantage of the girl who had run away from home and trusted them to help her.
But when they took her back to the restaurant - which was closed at the time - she was subjected to a prolonged sexual attack.
The girl was crying, fighting, and distressed during the assault and did not consent, and was not doing it for money.
- NZPA
