Doctor wins appeal against conviction on rape charge

Medical doctor Dennis Noa’s conviction on a charge of rape has been overturned by two judges of the Windhoek High Court.

Noa’s appeal was upheld in a judgement delivered on Friday.

Noa (30) was accused of raping an 18-year-old patient at Katutura Intermediate Hospital in Windhoek on 11 April 2021.

He denied guilt on the charge, but was found guilty in the Windhoek Regional Court in January this year.

Noa was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment in February.

He appealed to the High Court against his conviction after the end of his trial.

In the appeal judgement, judge Herman January found it was not proven that Noa committed a sexual act with the patient he was accused of having raped.

January also found that Noa’s version during his trial – that he handed the patient to an unknown hospital porter and later received the patient back from the porter – “is not fanciful and farfetched” and could not simply be rejected as false beyond reasonable doubt.

January and judge Philanda Christiaan, who agreed with his judgement, heard arguments on the appeal in September.