Cleared of defilement due to lack of sufficient evidence

A Latvian man was cleared of defiling a minor after a court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Viktors Barilaks, 43, had been charged with defiling a 15-year-old foreign student and with violent indecent assault in St Julians on July 8, 2002.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani heard how the young girl had reported to her group leader that a man had walked up to her and touched her as she was walking to her hotel. She later identified Mr Barilaks as her assailant, after he was detained by hotel security guards. She again identified him at the police headquarters.

Testifying in court, the 15-year-old alternated between saying she recognised Mr Barilaks and saying she did not.

Mr Barilaks denied in court of defiling the girl. He said he was in the vicinity of the hotel on the night in question and ran to see what happened when he heard the girl scream.

On evaluating the case the magistrate noted that "the issues in this case revolve quite crucially on the question of identification" and one could not say, to the level required by law, that the accused had assaulted the teenager.

The magistrate added that she believed that "the identification procedure was not handled well by the police and that in her panic... (the victim) could have been influenced indirectly to pinpoint the accused having seen him being held by the security guards".

The court also noted that the prosecution had failed to interrogate the group leader and also failed to produce the evidence of the security guards.

She cleared the accused on grounds that the charges brought against him had not been sufficiently proven.

Police Inspector Martin Sammut prosecuted.

Lawyers Cedric Mifsud and Michael Camilleri were defence counsel.