Vanuatu's appeal court has released on bail for re-trial a 50-year old expatriate Australian Christopher Dawson, who was jailed for six years and six months for rape.
His lawyers successfully appealed his December 2009 conviction for the rape of a sixteen year old girl on the grounds that Chief Justice Vincent Lunabek had delayed his verdict too long for the related convictions to be sustained.
Dawson was found guilty of three counts of rape by the Chief Justice after taking more than eight months to reach the verdict.
