In the absence of a proper legal definition to immoral acts, a magistrate yesterday said she found certain television shows and films more obscene than topless dancing.
As she acquitted two men and a woman of running a brothel, she said that a dancer dancing topless in front of one client in a private room could not be considered to be an immoral act.
“Can a dancer dancing topless in a private room in front of one customer be interpreted to constitute an immoral act?” Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit asked.
“By analogy, the court finds more obscene and immoral most television programmes and films readily available and viewable by younger generations that portray the female figure and body in a more obscene way than the case under examination.”
She was handing down her judgment in a criminal case instituted by the police against Paul Attard, Andra Iaona Togoi and Gary Camilleri, who ran Club Paradiso in Sliema.
Mr Attard leased the club to Mr Camilleri and his partner, Ms Togoi, ran the day-to-day operations.
The three were acquitted of running a brothel and of other charges related to living off the earnings of prostitution after the court held that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.
Can a dancer dancing topless in a private room in front of one customer be interpreted as an immoral act?
The court heard how the police were conducting random checks in various clubs on February 9, 2012.
In Club Paradiso, they found a woman dancing without a bra in a back room in the presence of a client.
The dancer, who was not called to testify, told the police the man, who was drunk, had removed her bra. Although this was not permitted according to the club’s rules, she continued to perform.
Magistrate Stafrace Zammit noted in her judgment that there was no legal definition of what constituted immoral acts.
“It is an accepted principle between all jurists and courts throughout Malta and abroad that whereas the term prostitution can be easily defined, the term immoral acts cannot,” she said.
“This is so because what is immoral in one country can be considered as not immoral in another and what was immoral a few years ago may be considered as perfectly acceptable in a modern society where things are evolving in a rapid manner.”
She said the prosecution did not prove that the club was used either solely or partly for the purposes of prostitution or for immoral acts.
Magistrate Stafrace Zammit therefore cleared the accused of all the charges brought against them.
Lawyers Giannella de Marco, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Shazoo Ghaznavi appeared for the accused.