A policeman has been cleared of groping a foreign woman at a Paceville nightclub but found guilty of resisting his own arrest.

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras sentenced Carl Vella, 25, from Naxxar, to six months in jail suspended for 18 months after she heard how he had committed a crime he, as a police constable, was duty-bound to prevent.

Mr Vella had been charged with groping a woman, Simone Brauener, who was with her friend Stanislava Dobrovolna at Hugo’s Passion in Paceville on December 6, 2011.

He was also charged with breaching the peace and with threatening and resisting a police sergeant and two police constables.

In his first statement, Mr Vella denied touching or groping the women but in his second statement, he admitted he had tried to dance with them but they told him to leave them alone. However, he denied grabbing Ms Brauener’s bottom or placing his hand between her legs as she claimed with police and repeated in her testimony in court.

Both women did not recognise Mr Vella in court. Superintendent Stephen Gatt told the court that although in the CCTV footage shows Mr Vella is seeing acting like a drunk person, he is not seen doing what the woman alleged.

Police officers told the court that Mr Vella had resisted them when they went to arrest him, telling them they were corrupt.

Magistrate Galea Sciberras cleared him of groping or molesting the woman but found him guilty of resisting the police.