A restaurant owner has been cleared of defiling a 13-year-old English girl five years ago after a court ruled that the girl`s allegations were not sufficiently corroborated and it was likely that they were her mother`s invention.

Magistrate Abigail Lofaro cleared Anthony Galea, 41, of defiling the girl at the Sunny Coast Restaurant in Bugibba on March 29, 1997.

The magistrate heard how in October, 1997 police received a complaint from the English police about a 13-year-old girl who claimed Galea raped her during her stay in Malta between March and April 1997.

The girl claimed she had consensual sex with Galea on a bunk bed in the Sunny Coast Hotel`s restaurant. She claimed she asked him to stop when it became painful but he held her arms above her head and continued.

The girl said it had taken her seven months to tell her parents that she had been raped because she only realised that she had been raped when she was speaking to her friend in England.

She explained that she was infatuated with Galea and had told him that she was 15 years old, but her mother had told him that she was 13.

The girl also said that her mother thought Galea was an attractive man and had seen them touch each other.

She admitted being jealous of Galea speaking to other girls but denied lying to get back at him. She also said that she had spoken to a receptionist called Mark and a waitress called Natalie about the matter.

Magistrate Lofaro also heard the girl`s mother say that her daughter told her and her husband she had been raped in October 1997, that is seven months after returning to England.

The mother said that on one occasion her husband went to their hotel room, at the Sunny Coast Hotel, to sleep because he was tired but she remained by the bar. Galea asked her to follow him to the restaurant to give him some advice on interior design and she accepted.

Once there they shared a bottle of wine and he started kissing and touching her and removed her top. She claimed she hardly knew what was going on because she was under the influence of the wine. Half an hour later her husband walked into the restaurant.

The mother said that after her daughter told her she was raped she told her husband what had happened.

But Galea denied ever having any form of sexual contact with the girl and said that he had only met her when she went to the restaurant with her parents.

He said that the mother had tried to seduce him and even took her top off and asked him if he thought she was an attractive woman.

Magistrate Lofaro noted that Galea had maintained a consistent version throughout. The girl, however, was not a credible witness because she had consensual sex with Galea and then claimed he had raped her.

The magistrate noted it was more likely that it was all the girl`s mother`s invention and the girl might have said she was raped to cover up for what she had done.

The magistrate noted that evidence proved that there was no receptionist called Mark working at the hotel at the time and the waitress Natalie denied that the girl ever told her she had been raped.

She noted that the girl`s version had not been corroborated and ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges pressed against Galea.

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