Two British women claim they were beaten up in Paceville

Two British women said yesterday they were beaten up and robbed in Paceville in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The two Londoners, Liliana Strano, 21, and Kelly Clifford, 25, arrived in Malta for a two-week holiday on Tuesday, staying at the Tropicana Hotel in Paceville.

"We were going back to the hotel at about 2.30 a.m. and as we were talking to some friends outside the hotel, a Maltese man, who was in the company of two women, started pelting us with stones.

"As I am pregnant, my friend stepped in and asked him why he was throwing stones at us and the man and the two women came straight to us and started beating us up," Ms Strano said.

The two women said they were also robbed of their handbags, containing their purse in which they had around Lm100 each, a mobile phone and other personal belongings.

Ms Clifford, whose sister is married to a Maltese, said she had lost a ring and two earrings.

"I don't know if they were taken from me or lost when I was beaten up. But I don't have them anymore," she said.

An ambulance was called and the Britons were taken to St Luke's Hospital.

Speaking to The Times, they also complained about the way they were treated in hospital. They are claiming that to get to hospital they shared an ambulance with a man who was "covered in blood".

Ms Strano, who is two months pregnant, claimed the doctor did not even check her tummy to see if the baby was still all right.

"All they did was x-ray my foot and bandaged it. When Kelly insisted she should have a scan, they just told us to get out," Ms Strano said.

Ms Clifford claimed a security guard grabbed her by her arm and she was bruised. Both claimed that the same security guard took Ms Strano out on a wheelchair and let her free wheel down the ramp at the casualty department.

"We had no money as we had just been robbed and we did not want to leave hospital as we felt we did not receive the treatment we should have been given. They did not even look at my bruises or do anything to me," Ms Clifford said.

"Two policemen arrived, and instead of seeing what had happened, they told us we should have filed a report at St Julian's police station. They became very angry when we asked them to take us to our relatives in Valletta. They told us we should have called a taxi," they said.

A St Julian's police official said they had not received any reports about the matter but would be investigating. The two women are expected to file an official report this morning.

The director of institutional health, Dr John Cachia, said it was true that the two Britons were ferried to hospital in an ambulance together with a person suffering from a facial wound, but there was nothing unusual about this. Unless the situation were serious, he said, it was acceptable for more than one injured person to use an ambulance.

Dr Cachia said the nurse who was on duty that night claimed both women were drunk. In fact, there was a continuous police presence to protect the staff while they were there in case the need arose.

He claimed one of the women was very troublesome. At one point she wanted to make a call to a mobile phone, and as the telephones at the casualty department are barred for these calls, she asked a man in the waiting room to lend her his mobile phone and proceeded to make a series of calls on it.

When the man started insisting that he wanted his mobile phone back, a nurse had to intervene because the woman became very irritated.

She also used bad language towards hospital staff, claimed Dr Cachia.

The pregnant patient was x-rayed and treated for a leg injury, but when she was offered an examination, and if necessary a scan, at the gynaecology department, she insisted on remaining at the casualty unit, which does not have the necessary equipment.

The two women were therefore told there was nothing else but for them to go home. However, they refused, he claimed, and a security guard, and then the police, were asked to intervene.

Asked if he saw scope for an investigation into the matter, Dr Cachia said that unless new facts emerged he saw no need for it.

Still visibly shaken by the whole ordeal, Ms Clifford said: "We have been coming to Malta since childhood. But we wanted to go back home after this horrible incident."