Three youths jailed for beach rape

A young man has been jailed for raping a 14-year-old student three years ago after he made a bet with two of his friends he would bed her by the end of the night.

The youth, who was 17 at the time, was jailed for four years and his two friends, who were both 16, were each jailed for two years for complicity in the rape which took place on a beach in St Julians on June 27, 2002.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima deplored the "callous manner" in which a 14-year-old girl had been raped simply because one individual decided to make a bet with his friends.

Names are not published by court order as the three accused were minors at the time of the commission of the crime.

The magistrate heard how on June 27, 2002, the three friends were at Bamboo Bar when they saw a boy, who they knew, with his foreign girlfriend and noticed that she was drunk. The 17-year-old accused told his two friends that by the end of the night he would have slept with her.

Some time after 11 p.m. the three friends noticed the couple leave the bar and head towards a nearby beach behind the Hilton hotel. That was when the 17-year-old decided to follow the couple accompanied by his two friends. In a statement to the police, the 17-year-old explained how he and his friends saw that the girl was almost naked on the beach together with her boyfriend.

The 17-year-old approached the couple, the girl's boyfriend tried to hit him and a struggle ensued but he still managed to get hold of the girl. He said he had sex with her in the presence of his two friends, one of whom held the girl from the shoulders.

The 17-year-old then told his friends: "You see how I slept with her". The magistrate also heard the girl, who testified with the help of an interpreter. She explained that she had come to Malta to learn English and on the night of her rape she got drunk on four shots of tequila.

She said she was with her Maltese boyfriend, the only boy she had ever slept with, when she was assaulted.

During the assault the girl's boyfriend ran to call the police but by the time officers arrived the three friends had left the scene.

On handing down judgement, the magistrate noted that the three youths were minors at the time and had a clean criminal record.

Evidence clearly showed that the 17-year-old had been the mastermind behind the crime which deserved an effective jail term and this because of the callous manner in which a 14-year-old girl had been raped simply because one of the accused decided to bet that he would sleep with her by the end of the evening.

Police Inspector Mario Tonna prosecuted.