Students admit to inventing assault story after breaching curfew

Two French tourists were this morning conditionally discharged for three years after admitting to falsely claiming they were assaulted by two men in an effort to justify staying out beyond their 11pm curfew.

The court heard how on Friday 29 August, the students, who are aged 18 and 18, had lodged a report at the Sliema police station in which they had claimed that two men tried to take their bags.

Sources said that the students had claimed that two men had approached them while they were in the common area of their apartments in Sliema at around 10:30pm. The students then alleged that the men assaulted them after trying to mug them.

However, it eventually transpired, that the two students, who are in Malta studying English, invented the story because they stayed out beyond their 11pm curfew and did not want to get into trouble.

Sources close to the investigation said that the 17-year-old student had arrived home drunk, and upon being questioned by her host family, she told invented the story – which version of events was subsequently seconded by the other student.

The two students, whose name cannot be published by court order, admitted to lodging a false police report, and were conditionally discharged for three years.

Inspector Jason Francis Sultana prosecuted while Magistrate Josette Demicoli presided.