An erotic dancer yesterday described how, at the precise moment she bared her breasts to a customer at a gentlemen’s club, a police officer walked in.
I am not a prostitute
Daniela Dinu, 25, from Romania, took to the witness stand in a case against her employers shortly after being fined €150 for indecent exposure.
Ms Dinu said that she had only been in Malta for a week when she was caught on Sunday at 2 a.m. inside the Private Club within the Plush Wine Bar in Paceville.
The director of the club, Joseph Zammit, 38, of St Julians and club manager Duncan Fenech, 36, of Mġarr, had nothing to do with her decision to bare her breasts and she took the decision out of her own free will, she said.
She was not a prostitute, she added.
The two men are pleading not guilty to running a brothel, allowing the establishment to be used for prostitution or immoral purposes and employing someone without a licence.
The dancer said that the exposure lasted only a few seconds and at that precise moment, a policeman, Superintendent Stephen Gatt, walked in and saw her.
She was employed as a dancer and would do two types of dancing. The first was dancing on a stage and the second was doing what is known as table dances where a client would specifically ask for a private dance.
On the night in question, she had given two table dances to the same client and in an attempt to entice him to pay for a third, she exposed her breasts, she said.
She would charge €20 which was split down the middle with the club, she added.
She said she had a contract with the club which was more like insurance to make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. She had an agent and danced in clubs all over Europe. Ms Dinu said she was actually registered as self-employed and the club would hire her services.
The club had notices on the door explaining that patrons over 21 years of age could enter and this notice was also repeated on all the tables. Clients entered voluntarily, and were not allowed to touch her. To get to the area in which she performed the private dance, one had to go past a thick curtain and then onto a single sofa which was then covered by a transparent curtain.
Bar staff had a clear view of the sofas and if a client were to touch one the dancers, they would be ejected immediately, she said.
Mr Zammit and Mr Fenech were granted bail against a deposit of €300 and a personal guarantee of €1,000.
Police Inspector Nikolai Sant prosecuted while Superintendent Stephen Gatt was also present. Lawyer Joseph Giglio appeared for both men while Shazoo Ghaznavi also appeared for Mr Fenech.
This case follows a judgment in February where a lap dancer, Sabrina Bonnett, 33, who was found scantily dressed in a Paceville club, was acquitted of running a brothel, offending public morals and being indecently dressed on the night in question.
In January, Luciana Loredana Secan, 21, from Romania, was accused of offending public morality by exposing herself indecently in the Déjà Vu Bar. The case is pending.