Prosecution failure leads to acquittal

A 20-year-old man who unbuttoned his trousers in public was yesterday conditionally discharged for six months after a court had to acquit him of defiling three girls aged between 11 and 14 years because the prosecution had failed to bring evidence of the girls' age.

Magistrate Abigail Lofaro said she was acquitting Peter Ohaka of the defiling the three girls in Cospicua on October 12, 2001 at about 5.30 p.m. only because the prosecutors failed to produce the girls' birth certificate. Neither were the girls asked to state their age for the record when they testified.

Ohaka, of Birzebbuga, was however found guilty of undressing in public, offending public morals, making obscene gestures and disobeying police.

In sentencing Ohaka, the magistrate took into consideration his clean criminal record and his troubled state of mind at the time of the commission of the crime.

Police Inspectors Alfred Mallia and Morgan Azzopardi prosecuted.