Hotel guest convicted of violent indecent assault of 15 year-old despite 'minimal contact'

Man accused of touching breasts of two French tourists in Paceville hotel

A Russian man will be filing an appeal after he was convicted of sexually assaulting one 15-year-old girl, and cleared of groping another, in a hotel corridor, despite serious discrepancies in witness testimony.

The 29-year-old accused, who cannot be named due to a court-imposed blanket ban on publication was accused of touching the breasts of two 15-year-old French tourists in a Paceville hotel.

Magistrate Ian Farrugia heard Inspector Nikolai Sant accuse the man of two counts of violent indecent assault and two counts of defilement of minors. The inspector explained to the court that the two French girls had reported to the police that a Russian man had touched their breasts on two different instances. Police spoke to all involved and had definitively identified the accused.

The girls had been in Malta since last Friday, travelling as part of a group of five. Both alleged victims took the stand and said that they had knocked on the wrong door in the hotel on Sunday thinking that their friends were inside.

The accused had opened and the girls realised their mistake. They apologised, but he did not understand because he doesn’t speak French. The girls said they had written “excuse us, we made a mistake” on their mobile which translated it to English and showed it to him.

“He asked us our names and to go into his room. We said "no" and he asked us our room number. First he touched my left shoulder and then my friends and I turned and ran away,” said the first girl to testify. “We went into our rooms and closed the door. He tried to follow us.” Their room was in the floor below,” she said, adding that after this happened, he had stayed in the corridor one floor above theirs.

Inspector Sant pointed out that when the police had arrived she had given a very different account. He asked her why. “I said the same thing exactly,” she replied.

Arthur Azzopardi asked whether the witness had told the police that the accused had chased her. “No I did not say that.”

The second girl took the stand, still wearing her backpack.  She had come to Malta on a school trip, she said.

“We were at the hotel I was staying at with my friends and the gentleman caught me by the left shoulder. We were in the corridor next to the lift. He caught my shoulder and then he put his fingers on my chest. There were people near me.”

The girl who had just testified before her had not been there, she said.

Asked whether she recognised anyone in the courtroom, she identified a teacher who had accompanied the girls, before pointing out a policeman seated behind the accused, who later told the court under oath that he had no connection with the case.

After the question was rephrased, she pointed out the accused. “His face is familiar.”

The magistrate read from the report she had filed with the police. “Amongst other things, she is saying that at around 8pm herself and around five other friends… were approaching the lobby area. She explained that while walking in the corridor, she was behind her friends. At this point a male person approached her from the front and touched her breasts. Did this incident happen?”

“Yes it happened,” she replied.

The inspector asked how her friend had seen what happened if she was the last in the group, but the girl did not give a satisfactory answer.

Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi cross examined.

He pointed out that she had previously described the assailant as a familiar face and had told the court that the man had touched her left breast with his right hand. “But you told the police that the man who touched you touched both your breasts with both his hands,” Azzopardi said.

The girl was “in a state of panic,” she said.

Had her friends already walked out of the hotel, he asked. “No they were right in front of me.”

Azzopardi then asked how, then, had the accused managed to get in between the girl and her friends and grab her breasts with both hands. “I don’t know, we were walking. We were doing nothing special,” she replied.

“When his hand was on your shoulder, did you pull back?” Azzopardi asked. “A little, yes. I felt panic.”  The lawyer suggested that this had caused the man’s hand to slide down.

A third girl then took the stand. Cross-examined by the prosecution she said that the accused had started to get close to the first girl. “He touched her shoulder and she was afraid, very afraid. We tried to translate again that we wanted to excuse ourselves and at one moment he asked us ‘what is the number of your room?’ We said ‘no no no’ and left, and he followed us. We went towards the stairs and he went to his room.”

Inspector Sant also testified, explaining to the court that the CCTV cameras in the corridor were not working. The girl had told the police that the accused had groped both breasts using with both hands, he explained.

Asked by the defence, the inspector confirmed that the accused had asked the police to see CCTV and when told this was not available he was “very sad.”

“I’m sorry to say that the police were misled by the girl or she was misled by her friend.”

Azzopardi acknowledged that the police had acted correctly, given the reports, but pointed out that the victim had changed her version completely today on the witness stand.

Under cross examination the girl had said that when the individual put his right hand on her left shoulder, she had panicked and pulled back. As she pulled back, the perpetrator’s hand had probably slid down, submitted the lawyer.

One would expect her friends to turn to look and see who the perpetrator is, said the lawyer, highlighting the fact that the accused had told the police that the young lady was alone.

”She is trying to fill the void in her version with corroboration. There is no one. This is why my client insisted on CCTV footage. His position was that the footage would exonerate him and convict the girls of filing a false police report. Is it credible to have a witness recognise a police officer who was not even present?”

From the legal aspect, Azzopardi said that elements of the crime of violent indecent assault were also missing.

Given the discrepancies between the girls’ versions, the legal uncertainties and missing elements, Azzopardi asked that accused be declared not guilty.

The court found him not guilty of sexually assaulting the first girl and of defiling her and her friend, however it found him guilty of violent indecent assault on the second girl “due to minimal contact.” Magistrate Farrugia handed the man a conditional discharge for 18 months.

Azzopardi gave notice of appeal.