Lap dancing bars should be regulated, not dictated by ‘morals’

The owner of the Déjà Vu gentleman's club, Marco Bonnici, was acquitted of charges of running an unlicensed brothel and employing dancers without a permit, after police had raided the club and found a naked woman giving an erotic dance to a client.

Delivering judgement, Magistrate Edwina Grima called for regulations that will cover gentlemen's clubs, saying that currently the law was unclear about what constitutes immoral acts.

On 23 January 2011, the police raided various gentleman's clubs in Paceville. At Déjà Vu, the police found Romanian national Luciana Loredana Secan, dancing topless. Investigations revealed she had been employed three hours previously and was not yet registered as an employee of the club.

From the witness stand Superintendent Stephen Gatt explained he had personally witnessed the woman dancing erotically on a table with her breasts bare, after he entered an area surrounded by a thin curtain.

The court commented that while it was a known fact that clubs such as Bonnici's offer erotic services, such clubs are not brothels. "Our laws define brothels as places used for prostitution, and there is no evidence of this at Déjà Vu," the magistrate said.

On his part, the accused said the club operates on very strict rules. No physical contact was allowed between the girls and the patrons, and the girls were strictly prohibited from removing their clothes. These rules were affixed in the dancer's changing room.

The defence claimed that what the police witnessed was not an immoral act. The lawyers substantiated their claim by exhibiting various locally purchased erotic magazines, saying that on the same premise such bookstores would be committing immoral acts.

The court rejected such arguments, saying there is no doubt that the erotic dance in itself was an immoral act.

Magistrate Grima acquitted Marco Bonnici of both charges. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi, Shazoo Ghaznavi and Robert Galea appeared for the accused.