A magistrate has called on legislators to regulate the industry providing 'gentlemen's entertainment'.

The recommendation was made by Magistrate Edwina Grima as she cleared the owner of a gentlemen’s club in St Julian’s, saying that the law did not define what was moral.

She said, however, that the fact that society had become more permissive did not mean that immoral acts had become moral. But immoral acts were not always equivalent to illegal acts although the legislator had to see that the industry was  regulated.

Marco Bonnici, 30, owner of Déjà Vu, had been arrested together with an employee, lap dancer Luciana Loredana Secan, 21, from Romania, who had been dancing topless. He was accused of operating a brothel and allowing immoral acts to be carried out in public.

Earlier on in the proceedings, lawyer Arthur Azzopardi had 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.

Magistrate Grima said that the defence argument that Playboy could be purchased from shops frequented by everyone did not hold water.

The magistrate said she was of the opinion that activities inside gentlemen clubs represented a transgression of the rules of decorum and decency. They were indecent and immoral.

However, there was no proof to suggest that the night club was being used for prostitution or for immoral purposes.

Shazoo Ghaznavi, Robert Galea and Arthur Azzopardi were defence counsel.

Luciana Loredana Secan was charged in separate proceedings.

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