Kidnap gang rapist Tyson Grech has six-year jail sentence confirmed on appeal

A judge has confirmed a six-year prison sentence handed to Tyson Grech for the rape of a 19-year-old girl in 2019.

Grech, who is implicated in the No Deposit Cars scandal and its kidnap gang, had been on bail after filing an appeal against the prison sentence he had received for the rape. 

While on his first date with the girl, Grech had first pressured the victim to consume two more drinks than she would have liked, before walking her to his car. The victim had told the court that she had woken up in an unfamiliar apartment next to Grech, who was still asleep, in her underwear and with pain in her private parts.

When he eventually woke up, he had overcome her resistance and raped the girl again before driving her home. He was sentenced to six years by Magistrate Rachel Montebello in 2019, but had filed an appeal and was later released on bail.

He was later found guilty of breaching his bail conditions, as well as another set of bail conditions related to ongoing proceedings in which he is charged with being part of a group who kidnapped a man in 2021; initially being sentenced to four months in prison for the bail breach. A police inspector had testified to having found Grech inside Paceville’s Havana Club at around 2am in September 2021, in violation of his court-imposed curfew. The police had been alerted to the breach thanks to a social media post uploaded by Grech himself, which placed him inside the nightclub.

That four-month prison sentence was, however, later reduced to a fine on appeal.

In his judgement, upholding the rape conviction and the six-year prison sentence, Mr Justice Neville Camilleri, presiding the Court of Criminal Appeal, dismissed each of Grech’s arguments and ordered him to pay the costs of appointing experts in the related inquiry.

Inspector Eman Hayman prosecuted. Lawyer Jason Grima assisted Grech.