A “misleading” conclusion by a junior radiologist kept a Dutchwoman in hospital overnight and searched for drugs that were never found, a court heard.

“To me this is a case where someone knew this was a police case and did not want the ball to stop in his court. Therefore they said: there ‘may be a shadow in the vagina, may be a shadow in the abdomen’. Many maybes,” consultant Joseph Farrugia Agius said.

He was testifying before Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, in a case filed by the Dutch woman, Jennifer Koster, against the Police Commissioner.

Ms Koster, 36, who was born in the Dominican Republic, is claiming she was “treated like a dog” when she was arrested soon after her arrival in Malta on a flight from Germany on February 18. A regular visitor to Malta because she has a Maltese partner, she was taken to hospital where a search for drugs in her body cavities followed an X-ray she consented to.

She claims she was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, as she had to endure a vaginal examination and was given a laxative and asked to search her own excrement.

In an interview with Times of Malta on February 24, Ms Koster said she had felt humiliated. “I cried. Not because I did wrong but because of the way I was treated,” she had said.

Police Commissioner Michael Cassar denied that the police had acted in an abusive manner. In his testimony, Dr Farrugia Agius said that, as a consultant at Mater Dei Hospital, he saw Ms Koster in the morning of February 19.

She had been taken to the emergency department the previous evening by the police suspecting she was a body packer.

In line with normal procedure, an X-ray was taken to ensure she had nothing hidden in her stomach or vagina. The radiologist on duty concluded there was “a shadow” in the X-ray, adding it “may be” there was something. On the strength of this, a vaginal examination was carried out immediately and it was ruled out that anything was hidden there.

In order to ensure nothing was contained in the stomach, Ms Koster was kept overnight and given a laxative.

The next morning, the consultant said, he ordered a second opinion by a respected consultant radiologist who said it was clear there were no shadows and there was “no visible region of concern”. As a result, she was discharged.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Angie Muscat are representing Ms Koster.