Couple cleared of rape in trial lasting just one day

A Tunisian man and his Maltese girlfriend have been cleared of the aggravated rape of a Maltese woman after a trial lasting just one day.

In a marathon sitting, ending around midnight last night, Madame justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how the accused man and woman, whose names are being withheld by order of the court, had allegedly raped the victim and held her against her will in the 2012 encounter in a hotel room.

The court heard how the victim knew her assailants, who had offered her a lift to Paceville. On the way there, their car ran out of fuel and eventually had to be towed away, so the trio had paid for one night at the Seaview Hotel in Qawra.

As they were settling in for the night, the couple stripped naked and started to undress the woman, with whom the man later had sex. The alleged victim said she had resisted but had been overpowered by the couple.

She had later filed a police report, and the accused couple were charged.

The court ruled that while the prosecution had shown that the sexual encounter had taken place, it had not managed to prove that the sex acts were carried out against the will of the subject.

“Although what happened can be deemed disgusting and constitute a violation of the modesty of a person, the law still demands that these acts be done against the will of the person in order to amount to the crime at issue.

Describing the woman’s testimony as “confused, inconsistent and totally contradictory”, the court said it could not rely on it to arrive at a guilty verdict. Declaring the couple not guilty, the court ordered their immediate release.

The judge also ordered that a copy of the sentence be handed to the Commissioner of Police to investigate possible perjury on the part of the complainant.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Simon Micallef Stafrace were defence counsel.