THE Pietermaritzburg Regional Court has dismissed a high profile rape case against Johannesburg tycoon Jonty Sandler, who had been accused of raping a security guard at gunpoint in a Drakensburg hotel. Magistrate Fred de Beer threw out the case on the grounds that the evidence presented against Sandler in court this week boiled down to only “suspicions” and that the court could not rely on such “suspicions” to make a guilty finding. The magistrate said there was no prima facie case because of inconsistencies in the evidence. The ruling on Thursday afternoon followed a call by Sandler’s defence team to dismiss the case against the millionaire businessman because the state had failed to present a strong case. De Beer said that when he had driven to work on Thursday morning, he had wondered whether the defence would apply to have the case set aside because of the poor performance on the part of the prosecution.