Pasqualino Cefai guilty of violent indecent assault

Pasqualino Cefai, the Gozitan thug who once threatened a magistrate in her own courtroom, has been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment after a his acquittal on charges of violent indecent assault were overturned on appeal.

Cefai, 36, had been accused of assaulting a woman to whom he had offered a lift home from a bar in 2010. Although the woman did not know his name, the police had honed in on Cefai thanks to the description of her assailant.

She had told police that the man had repeatedly touched her, despite her objections, kissed her and at one point had reached under her skirt. No external signs of violence were found on the woman.

The police had then spoken to Cefai who had told them that he had been drinking with a male friend at a Marsalforn bar in May 2010 and had been introduced to an English woman whom he had given a ride home.

In 2015, a court of magistrates in Gozo had found Cefai not guilty of the charges on the basis of conflicting evidence, saying the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Attorney General had filed an appeal, complaining that the court's appreciation of the evidence was mistaken and that the court “could not have legally and reasonably reached its decision.”

In his judgment on the matter, Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri noted that the presiding magistrate had not been availed of the opportunity to hear witnesses, but had to rely on transcriptions of previous evidence. He, however, criticised the decision by court of magistrates to clear the man on the basis of conflicting evidence “without the slightest attempt to articulate the reasoning that led it its conclusion.”

The first court, Camilleri said, had made a number of generic declarations about the risks of consuming alcohol without tying this to the evidence exhibited and had quoted legal authorities on cases where conflicting evidence existed but had also neglected to connect them to the case at hand.

Whilst it was true that the woman had consumed wine and Martinis, but her version of what happened had remained consistent from her initial report, to her final testimony in court. Cefai had also told the barman that the woman hadn't let him have his way with her. The court noted that although this was hearsay evidence in regards to what actually happened, it was also direct evidence of what he had told the officers, which corroborated the woman's account of what had taken place.

Because the victim had clearly repeatedly refused his advances, the allegation that she had been intoxicated at the time - which were not proven – are irrelevant, the court said.

Cefai was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.