Host accused of raping Polish backpacker

A man has been remanded in custody on charges of having raped a Polish backpacker, after meeting her on a couchsurfing app.

Police Inspectors John Spiteri and Elisia Scicluna, assisted by prosecutor Darlene Grima from the office of the Attorney General, arraigned 27-year-old Saliou Balde from Senegal before Magistrate Joseph Gatt on Tuesday.

Balde, who resides in Marsa, told the court that he had been working as a tile layer for a Maltese company for the past eight years, was charged with rape and committing a non-consensual sexual act.

Inspector Spiteri testified about what led to the man’s arrest. On 10 July, a Polish woman filed a report at the Zebbug police station, explaining that she was backpacking in Malta and wanted to travel across Europe. 

She had booked a stay with the defendant through a couchsurfing app, which aims to allow people to rent out spare rooms to travellers on a tight budget. The woman told the police that she had understood that Balde was providing a single room at his residence where she could spend the night. 

But when the woman arrived at the property at around 10pm on July 4, carrying all her luggage, she discovered to her horror that she would be sharing a bedroom with the male host. 

With no other accommodation options immediately available, the exhausted woman had gone to bed. That night, the inspector said, Balde had made unwelcome sexual advances and touched her inappropriately. “Ignoring her when she told him to stop and in spite of her resistance, he then raped her.”

In an exchange of messages after the incident, the woman had also made it clear that the man’s actions were unwelcome and deplorable. “The defendant had not contradicted this, rather he replied to her saying that he was sorry and that he had been drunk.”

Balde was subsequently arrested on Sunday.

Cross-examined by lawyer Jason Azzopardi, representing the defendant together with lawyer Kris Busietta, the inspector confirmed that according to the statements released by the parties, the defendant and alleged victim had gone to the shops together before the incident. 

The lawyer pointed out that the defendant’s brother and another woman were also present in the property at the time. “We asked the victim why she didn’t try to leave the room. She said that she was initially going to go to his brother’s room, but changed her mind after it occurred to her that he might interpret it as an invitation to sexual activity, too.”

It was later clarified that the person described as a brother was, in fact only a fellow Senegalese national and not a blood relative, rendering him a competent and compellable witness.

Both the defendant and alleged victim had told the police that they had consumed one bottle of beer each, as well as marijuana.

“He said that he had been drunk and, in fact, told us that he didn’t even remember the incident,” said the inspector, adding however that the prosecution “had doubts” as to how sexual intercourse could have been physically possible in that scenario.

Before asking the man what he was pleading, the magistrate pointed out to him that the charges were serious and that he faced a considerable prison sentence if found guilty.

A plea of not guilty was entered on the defendant’s behalf by his lawyers, who then asked that he be granted bail.

Azzopardi suggested that the police were in possession of mobile phone messages sent to the defendant by the woman in the days after, in which she expressed displeasure with what happened, adding that the defendant had replied “to the effect that both of them were drunk…and that he apologised if he touched her without consent, but that he did not know that he did it.”

The lawyer also highlighted the fact that several days had passed between the incident and the filing of the police report.

Prosecutor Darlene Grima objected to the bail request, expressing concern about the possibility of the defendant tampering with evidence or intimidating the victim, whose number he knew and whose social media profiles he had access to.

Grima said that the alleged victim had sent only one message to the defendant, who then sent her a stream of messages.

Inspector Spiteri added that the woman had told the police that she wanted to move on after suffering the unwanted encounter, but the man’s insistent messaging was acting as a constant reminder to her of what happened.

He said it was “too early a stage for justice to not only be done but to be seen to be done.”

The court denied bail at this stage due to the grievous nature of the accusations and the fact that the alleged victim had not yet testified. A protection order was also issued in favour of the woman.

Azzopardi complained that the witness could have been brought to testify today, but the inspector pointed out that if the prosecution had done so, it would have opened it up to being accused of forum shopping by the defence.

The court explained the serious consequences of breaching the protection order to the defendant, who was remanded in custody.