30 May 2013

Trio found not guilty of rape

4:10 pm on 30 May 2013

A High Court jury has found three men not guilty of raping a woman in Hamilton.

Harvinder Singh, 22, Kamalijeet Singh, 27 and Sumit Vermani, 26, were accused of raping a 19- year-old woman at a flat in April 2011.

The Crown said they treated the woman as an object of sexual gratification.

But two of men denied any physical involvement with the woman, while the third said he had sex with her but it was consensual.

The jury of seven women and five men retired on Thursday morning and took four hours to reach their verdicts.

Earlier, Justice Venning told jurors that the legal definition of consent in relation to the events on the night was crucial to their deliberations.

Immediately after leaving the courtroom, the men were taken into custody by police and it is believed they now face deportation on immigration charges.