The revival of the 1964 ‘bikini case’ brought back vivid memories of those events which, at the time, did not have any element of farce, rather concern and controversy, unlike the recent case of Christina Betke which really was pure farce. Christine Adams was George de Trafford’s girlfriend at the time, later his wife and mother of his children. Both Christine and George are now both sadly departed.

As close friends we were very worried about the outcome. What we did not know was that the whole business had been engineered by Dodo Lees, a great friend of the de Traffords and also of Dom Mintoff.

In the 1950s, Dom Mintoff had appointed her to develop the tourist industry.

In her memoirs, Dodo, she wrote: “The number of tourists was now increasing substantially, but there was still the old-fashioned rule that you couldn’t wear a bikini, and men were even arrested in the street for not wearing a shirt. Well, I do agree that in a very Catholic country like Malta the street is not the right place to walk around half naked. Nor the bars.

“But I thought women should be allowed to wear bikinis on the beach and I was irritated that notices I’d arranged to be put on the beaches in 1955 saying ‘Please keep the beach clean’ were changed to ‘Don’t wear bikinis on the beach’.

“George de Trafford, Cecilia’s youngest son, had a girlfriend, who was very pretty. I persuaded her to lie on St George’s Bay beach in full view of the road, and I then told somebody to report her to the police and informed the newspapers of her pending arrest so they could take photographs. We employed a good lawyer at the hearing and she got off, and, since 1960, bikinis have been allowed on the beaches.”

Christine had a sylph-like girlish body, and in no way could anything she wore be considered indecent. Yet both Kevin Dingli and Joseph Galea Debono are right up to a point, as there were both serious and farcical elements to it after all.