Woman cleared of robbing massage client after victim refuses to testify

A woman from Cospicua has been cleared of assaulting and stealing a wallet at gunpoint from a physically disabled man who had called her to his house to give him a massage after the alleged victim refused to testify.

The unusual incident occurred on 1 February 2018, when the man called the police to report that he had been hit in the face and robbed by a woman who had gone to his Valletta apartment to give him a massage. The police were told that the wheelchair-bound man had received a friend request from Kimberlyn Xuereb who had suggested that they meet.

Superintendent Priscilla Caruana Lee had testified before magistrate Nadine Lia, recalling how the man had told police that he had explained to the accused that he had mobility problems and they had agreed on her going to his residence to give him a massage in exchange for €50. But when he opened the door for Xuereb, he had suspected something was not right and asked her to leave.

The man had told the police that the woman replied that as she had gone all the way to his house, she was still owed the money and grabbed a pouch which was hanging on the wheelchair whilst hitting him in the face. She had also pulled out a handgun and threatened him with it, said the inspector.

The man had resisted as best he could, and the woman had fled. The police had recovered a pair of black boots, a red handbag containing a prison receipt in the accused’s name and a plastic imitation handgun from the scene. The victim had CCTV, and from the footage, which showed a half-undressed woman with distinctive tattoos on her back leaving the man’s house, the police had arrived at the accused.

After some time trying to track her down, Xuereb was arrested and interrogated at the Valletta police station in April 2019.

The court also heard a doctor from the Floriana health centre testify as to the man’s injuries which consisted of scratches.

A court expert had been appointed to examine the man at his home and inform the magistrate as to whether or not he could attend court to testify. The man had explained to the expert that he had been confined to a wheelchair after suffering a spinal injury in 1990 and lived alone with no one to help him. With the proper transport arrangements, the victim would be able to testify, he concluded.

A number of previous convictions relating to the accused were exhibited, with the court also hearing a probation officer testify that the woman would only attend appointments sporadically and had tested positive for cocaine in 2016, but had since moved in with her mother and was now testing negative.

Xuereb had opted not to testify and had refused to answer the majority of the police’s questions during her interrogation, noted the court.

But the magistrate highlighted the fact that the alleged victim had never attended court sittings, despite being offered the necessary assistance. The court noted that the prosecution had found itself in a situation where it could not force the parte civile to testify against his wishes. The prosecution eventually renounced him as a witness.

Magistrate Lia noted that in the absence of the man’s testimony, the rest of the evidence against the accused was circumstantial and uncorroborated. This led the court to declare that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused of any of the charges against her. Xuereb was cleared as a result.

Lawyer Graziella Tanti was defence counsel.

Superintendent Priscilla Caruana Lee prosecuted.