Illegally employed security guard charged with rape

A 23-year-old man from Macedonia has been remanded in custody after being accused of the rape of a woman.

Martin Antevski had been wanted by the police for the past week in connection with the alleged sexual assault and was caught on the catamaran on his way to Sicily, Inspector Clayton Camilleri told the court.

Few details of the events which led to the charges emerged today, but sources said the accused was not in a relationship with his alleged victim, who is 22.

Antevski, who told the court that he was a part-time security guard working for a local security company, pleaded not guilty to rape.

His lawyer Lennox Vella asked for bail, pointing out that the charges dated back to last month, which had given the police ample time to collect the evidence they needed. The victim herself had already testified in the magisterial inquiry that was appointed shortly after the alleged crime.

The accused had voluntarily surrendered his electronic devices and had checked several times with the inspector as to the progress of the investigation, said Vella.

Moreover, he had a fixed address he said, although the accused was unable to recall what it was.

The argument that he was a flight risk because he was a foreigner was fallacious, said the lawyer, arguing that a Maltese person was just as capable of absconding.

But it later emerged that he had only been working with his present employer for four days and was illegally employed as he had not registered his employment with the authorities.

Inspector Camilleri also explained that the accused had a seven-month-old daughter living abroad and had been arrested on the catamaran leaving Malta, having been wanted for a week. Antevski had no ties to Malta, the inspector added.

The court asked the young man what ties he had to Malta: no family, or friends and he had been in Malta for only a month, he replied. This lawyer noted that even in other more serious cases, bail had been granted under these circumstances.

The magistrate, however, denied bail, noting that the accused on his own admission, was also working in Malta illegally and therefore had little respect for the laws of the country.

In view of the fact that he had no ties to these islands and his family lives abroad, the court said it was not convinced that the man satisfied the prerequisites for bail and remanded him in custody.