On the morning of the 28^th of May, 2020 in Pasifika, Andrew bought a gold ring valued at $300.00 for his girlfriend Frances. At about 3 pm at their single house flat at Lot 41 Brown Street, Frances took the ring off her finger and placed it on the cabinet in the lounge room before she went into the shower. Upon her return the ring was missing. At that time their gardener Matty a blond French man was mowing the lawn outside. Rattan their neighbor overheard Frances talking about her missing gold ring later at the local groceries store that afternoon after reporting it to the police.

During the police investigation Rattan told the police that he saw Matty entered Frances's house from the front door stayed in the house for about 5 minutes then exited. Matty and Rattan had an altercation about two weeks earlier over Matty cutting a branch of Rattan's guava tree hanging over Frances and Andrew's compound.

There was a camera at the adjacent side of the room where the cabinet was recording all the movements and it recorded vaquely a white man with afro black hair entered the house walked towards the cabinet remained there for about 5 minutes then exited. Rattan told his wife Usman about what he saw the next day .Usman later gave evidence to the police. There was a police investigation, Matty was arrested and was interviewed by Constable Harry without given his right to see a relative or a lawyer. He was left at the police cell for 12 hours without meals before he was interviewed. Matty admitted to the charge of theft saying that at exactly 5 minutes after 3 pm on 28^th May 2020 he walked into Andrew and Frances's house and stole a 22carat gold ring belonging to Frances. The ring was never recovered by police.

Matty applied for bail through his defence lawyer by the name of Sione at the Magistrate's Court but was rejected by the judge who said he is guilty until proven innocent by the Court and must remain in the state's custody until trial. Matty was greatly annoyed when the magistrate finally convicted him of theft after 10 months, on the strength of all the evidence including Usman's. Matty appealed the conviction and was acquitted by the High Court of Pacifika. Matty decided to take a civil action against the State for malicious prosecution.

During the course of the lower court trial Andrew had some domestic issues with Frances and was unwilling to tell the truth in Court during the trial. Prosecution had to rely totally on Frances and the other witnesses to secure a conviction against Matty.

i)Identify and discuss evidentiary issues arising out of the proceedings in the Magistrate's Court that were identified by the Appeal judge that led to the Matty being acquitted in the High Court of Pacifika. Use case authorities and statutes from any USP jurisdiction to illustrate your answer.

ii)Discuss the relevant evidentiary issues (arising out of this facts scenario), burden and standard of proof required for malicious prosecution proceeding. Use case authorities to illustrate your answer

iii)Discuss Sione's obligations to Matty during the criminal trial at the lower Court, in particular during cross examination. Use case authorities to illustrate your answer

iv)Discuss the process the prosecution had to follow in light of Andrew's unwillingness to cooperate with prosecution during the trial at the court of first instance. Use case authorities to illustrate your answer.