Woman misappropriates gold, alleges hold up

A 29-year old woman who claimed two men broke into her residence and attempted to rape her, found herself in the dock after admitting to having filed a false report.

On 5 December, Mary Anne Borg, of Mtahleb called at the Rabat police station alleging two men carrying shotguns had knocked on the door of her farmhouse. The alleged aggressors forced their way inside the residence and one of them threw her on the floor and tried to rape her. The other man found her boyfriend's stash of gold and ran away with it. The gold was valued at €5,000. Borg, sporting bruises on her face and legs, told the police she had been beaten up and injured in the incident.

However, when court experts spoke to the alleged victim, she recounted a different story. The allegation that shotguns were used changed to knives, and the bruise on her face resulted in a lesion. Investigating officer confronted the woman with the discrepancies in her report, and Borg again changed her version. This time she owed up to misappropriating the gold her boyfriend entrusted her with. She sold the gold and filed a report claiming she was held up. To make her claim credible Borg inflicted injuries on herself.

Borg was charged with filing a false police report, perjury, misappropriation and committing a crime while under the term of a conditional discharge.

Although the accused pleaded guilty as charged, the prosecuting officer asked the court not to deliver judgement today as the magisterial inquiry over the case is still ongoing and Borg needs time to recoup the gold. The prosecution also asked that no bail deposit is ordered as it would be the victimised boyfriend who foots the bill, as the accused could not afford to pay.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit granted bail to the accused against a personal guarantee of €5000. Sentence will be delivered at a later stage.

Police Inspectors Robert Vella and James Grech prosecuted while defence lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili for the accused.