A Swedish girl who was allegedly raped two years ago was drunk at the time and could not remember the whole incident the next day, jurors heard yesterday in the trial of two men accused of the crime.

In a statement to the police, the girl said that, after leaving a club in Paceville with her friend, they met two men who offered to show them a shortcut to their hotel.

They walked along the seaside until they reached Shingles Bay in St Julians and sat down on the rocks, where the alleged incident took place on May 14, 2006.

Giving testimony, Inspector Paul Vassallo said three men were arrested in connection with the incident.

Nader Abdulaziz Elgerian, 29, subsequently pleaded not guilty to raping the girl while his friend Hasan Mohamed Ahmed, 30 denied assisting in the crime. Both are Libyan nationals. The third man was not charged as it transpired that he had been helping the two girls and was not part of the alleged crime.

Speaking to the girls at the police depot after the incident, Inspector Vassallo said one of them told him she had tried to get away from Mr Nadar on the beach when another man pushed her to the ground. She bit him and Mr Hasan put his hand over her mouth. She could not breathe so kept quiet in the hope that he would stop.

Her friend corroborated her account, adding that she had been attacked by someone else whom she could not identify and managed to scare him off, at which point she ran to the main road and shouted for help.

On his arrest, Mr Hasan told the inspector he had seen the girls looking anxious and when he heard the police coming he decided to run away because he did not want to get caught up in the commotion. He was arrested after a lengthy chase through the streets of Paceville.

The accused also claimed that one of the girls had accepted to have sex with him but then three men came to the beach and scared him away.

Inspector Vassallo said the girls identified the accused through an identity parade.

Court expert Juliana Scerri Ferrante, who collected the girls' testimony, said she had been impressed at how the girls recognised the alleged aggressors straight away.

Since the alleged victims are now back in Sweden their police statements were then read out in court.

They confirmed that they were very drunk. At the beach, one of the girls sat down next to one of the men and he started to kiss and touch her. She remembered having a black-out and on waking up realised that she was being raped.

"I remember that one of the men sat on my chest while the other raped me."

On the way to the beach no one had mentioned anything about having sex. She was in a relationship at the time and would not consider being intimate with another man, she said. Her friend backed up her version of events.

An eyewitness, Zakarija Abdisamed Abukar, said he saw two Libyan men walk onto the beach with two Swedish-looking girls. He overheard their conversation because the girl seemed very insistent that she did not want to have sex.

Mr Nadar then pulled down her pants while Mr Hasan pinned her hands down. He said that once Mr Nadar had finished with her Mr Hasan took over and she went quiet.

When he was at the police depot Mr Nadar threatened to kill him if he spoke to the police about what he had seen, claimed Mr Abukar.

Anthony Barbara, head of the Prosecution Unit at the Attorney General's Office, prosecuted. Lawyer Joe Brincat appeared for the two men.