Court rejects Justin Haber's appeal, confirms sexual harassment conviction

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Justin Haber, confirming his conviction for sexually harassing a teenage employee and ruling that the original punishment was fully justified given the seriousness of the offence.

Haber, 44, a former Malta national football team goalkeeper, was found guilty in September of sexually harassing a girl who worked at his Marsaxlokk restaurant. The abuse began when the victim was 14 and continued until she was 16.

On Tuesday, the court upheld the original sentence: two years’ imprisonment suspended for four years, a €7,000 fine, and a three-year protection order in favour of the victim and her family.

In rejecting the appeal, Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera said Haber had “erred, and erred greatly,” stressing that the behaviour could not be trivialised as friendly conduct or justified by claims of an informal, family-like workplace. The court underlined that the victim was a vulnerable minor under Haber’s authority as her employer.

The judgment emphasised the aggravating nature of the power imbalance, noting that Haber was a mature man in his forties at the time of the offences, while the victim was a teenage employee dependent on the job.

The victim, whose identity is protected by a court ban, told police that Haber subjected her to repeated unwanted sexual behaviour during her employment as a waiter.

She described receiving messages asking her to send intimate photos when she was 14, being grabbed on her buttocks, kissed on the neck, and tricked into kissing him on the lips after he asked for a kiss on the cheek and turned his face at the last moment.

The girl also testified that Haber suggested she should lose her virginity with him, invited her to his home after work, and proposed going out on his boat. She said she was afraid to refuse him and remained in the job because she needed the money.

In his appeal, Haber argued that the prosecution had failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that the sentence was excessive. He sought to discredit the victim and another underage witness, claiming their testimony was exaggerated and influenced by his former partner.

He also claimed that messages presented in evidence were not proven to have been sent from his phone, arguing that his dyslexia prevented him from writing messages using certain English words and emojis.

The court rejected these arguments, noting contradictions in Haber’s own versions. While he denied kissing the victim on the lips during testimony, he had previously admitted to police that he had done so, as well as hitting her on her buttocks during the police statement. 

Moreover, the victim’s testimony was found to be consistent and was confirmed through another witness. The court addressed the comment made by the defence regarding the “excessive” punishment, in which it said that a prison sentence and a fine together does not automatically deem it excessive. The sentence was necessary to serve as a deterrent. 

In addition, the accused was ordered to pay any court expenses and will continue to be on the register for sex offenders. 

Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera presided over the sitting.