A court this morning dismissed a woman's claims that she had been gang raped by three men, and said the version of events given by the accused was more credible.

Rhys Fiteni, 26 and Keith Bartolo 25, both of Senglea and Ronald Barbara 26 of Vittoriosa were found not guilty of raping the cousin of one of them on April 9. 2006 in a Senglea tenement.

The woman, who was 18 at the time, had filed a police report the day after the alleged incident.

She had claimed to have been walking near Senglea Point when the men forced her into the tenement - belonging to the relative of one of them - and raped her.

The accused said they had been walking towards Senglea Point when they met the woman.  Dirty jokes were exchanged and she told them that they could not keep up with her in sex and she could handle all three of them at once.

They took that as being a challenge and then went into the tenement.  On the way they met one of the woman's friends. This friend - as confirmed by evidence -  asked the woman where they were going and she replied that 'you cannot come with us'.

During the proceedings, Police Inspector Anthony Cassar had explained that the youths had been charged under arrest (they were later granted bail) because of the serious nature of the crime that involved the rape of a woman who suffered from mental illness.

Defence counsel Joseph Giglio argued that anything that happened between the three youths and the girl happened with everybody's consent. He said that the only problem the woman suffered from was promiscuity.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera in her judgement said that although the alleged victim pretended to be innocent and genuine, she was clearly experienced in matters where men were concerned and that same morning had had sex with another 33-year-old man, as confirmed by the examination of semen.

Although she had sex with the three accused, including intercourse with one of them and oral sex with the others, there was no evidence of rape.

The magistrate said she found the woman's version of events not to be credible especially in view of the other evidence presented.

Drs Franco Debono, Joe Giglio and Gavin Gulia were defence counsel.