A priest was cleared of exposing himself to a woman in Gozo after the court yesterday ruled that her testimony was riddled with inconsistencies.
Fr Joseph Grech, 38 had pleaded not guilty of the act involving a woman in Dwejra, San Lawrenz, on September 17 at around 4 p.m.
When contacted yesterday, he said he thanked God that justice had finally been done, adding that when the police had first called him he thought it was because he had a dent on his front bumper and he had accidently hit another car.
"I was absolutely surprised when I found out the reason the police had called me in," he said.
Testifying, Helena Wiser, a Swiss woman here on holiday at the time, said she had gone for a walk on the rocky cliffs when she turned around to see a man exposing himself as soon as she looked in his direction.
Frightened, she approached an Italian couple for assistance but they could not understand her. She then said she went down to an ice cream vendor, who saw a man whom she alleged was the aggressor looking at the woman before driving off.
The vendor took down the car's registration number and the vehicle was traced to Fr Grech.
However, the eyewitness had only seen the man in the car look at Ms Wiser while she could not specifically identify the person in the car.
The priest categorically denied the charges saying he had not seen or met Ms Wiser before. He had gone down to Dwejra for a swim but because the sea was not very inviting he dressed up and left.
He then drove up the hill on the side of the old watch tower and stopped to go for a walk and to admire the view. He drove down to buy an ice cream until it was time for him to pick up his mother. In fact, he didn't buy an ice cream because he received an SMS and drove off.
The court said that it had two very different versions of events, while pointing out that there were a number of inconsistencies in the woman's version.
Among other things, Ms Wiser said she was walking along the coast before she changed her version saying she was sitting close to the Fungus Rock. Magistrate Edwina Grima cleared Fr Grech of all the charges.