SC respects findings of trial courts if judicious, not whimsical

The Court, almost invariably, is asked in rape cases to choose between the discordant, often essentially irreconcilable, declaration of the victim and that of the accused. In that determination, an appellate court, realizing many times that it cannot hope to be in a position greater than, or even equal to, that of the trial court which can observe up close the demeanor of witnesses in giving their testimony, simply would accord due respect to the findings of the lower court. Here, the records do not give any trace of whim or arbitrariness on the part of the court a quo in its assessment of the facts; quite the contrary, it appears to have been judicious in its findings.