Lawyer raises issue of Playboy sales in lap dancer’s case

The lawyer of a lap dancer, taken to court for dancing topless, yesterday asked the prosecuting officer to accompany him to buy a Playboy magazine from a shop near the court house, as he argued even bookshops had become immoral by the officer’s standards.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was making submissions in the case against his clients, Luciana Loredana Secan, 21, from Romania, and 30-year-old Marco Bonnici, owner of the St Julians gentlemen’s club Déjà Vu where she performed.

It was during an exchange with Superintendent Stephen Gatt that the lawyer asked Magistrate Edwina Grima to suspend proceedings for 15 minutes while he and the officer went out to buy a copy of the soft porn magazine.

Supt. Gatt declined the lawyer’s offer but Dr Azzopardi used the point to argue that the law did not define immoral acts, making the assessment of what constitutes such an act a subjective one.

He read out a passage from a previous judgment in a similar case in which Judge Joseph Galea Debono had said: “Whatever the views of the court, in the absence of clear definitions of what could or could not amount to immoral purposes, the court understands that this issue can remain a subjective one. Apart from factors of time, place and circumstances, the issue also depended on the psychological and moral make-up of the adjudicator.”

Dr Azzopardi also referred to a constitutional case on this point which is pending before Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef who was expected to hand down a decision next Thursday. At this point, Magistrate Grima put off the case pending that judgment.

Ms Secan was arraigned on Sunday along with Mr Bonnici after the police raided the Déjà Vu at 3 a.m. on the same day.

Her client, Latvian Victor Zagarnejs, said the woman approached him “sweetly” and asked to dance for him. He accepted and was led to a separate room where, he said, Ms Secan danced topless for a few minutes before the police barged in.

Lawyer Robert Galea also appeared for the accused.