Man who ran brothel jailed on appeal

A man, who had originally been cleared of living off the earnings of prostitution was yesterday jailed for three years when an appeal court found him guilty of the charge.

The Magistrates' Court had cleared James Grima, of Mosta, of trafficking in two Russian women for prostitution purposes, living off the earnings of prostitution, running a brothel and allowing the apartment where he lived to be used as a brothel between May and July 2004.

The Attorney General appealed this decision and Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, started by noting that the judgment delivered by the Magistrates' Court was devoid of any motivation.

He noted that the Magistrates Court ruled: "For these reasons the court does not find the accused James Grima guilty..." Yet "these reasons" were not given.

The judge noted that the appeal court did not usually disturb the decision reached by the Magistrates' Court after evaluating all evidence. However, in this case the judgment did not contain any reasons why the magistrate had reached the decision and, therefore, the appeal court was to analyse the evidence.

Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that the case revolved around the evidence given by a Russian woman and circumstantial evidence that corroborated her version.

Testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Grima, the Russian woman, 22, said that while still in Russia a woman told her about Malta and about Mr Grima. Eventually, a Moscow agency made arrangements for her and a friend to come to Malta.

When they arrived at Malta airport they were picked up by a mini-van and taken to a hotel near the sea where they waited outside for Mr Grima to pick them up.

He picked them up and took them both to his apartment in Bugibba where they met his Russian wife. That same evening she was taken to a hotel and into a room where there was a man and she offered him a sexual service, she said.

She explained how she was told that the man paid Mr Grima Lm15 for the half hour he was with her but she did not receive any payment.

The woman said she stayed at Mr Grima's apartment for four to five days during which she slept with about two men every day but was never paid.

After evaluating the evidence the judge cleared Mr Grima of human trafficking but found him guilty of all other charges.

He jailed him for three years and ordered that the time spent in preventive custody be deducted from the jail term.