A convicted rapist from Ivory Coast was jailed for six months after being found guilty of breaching bail conditions.

Mumen Traore, 30, appeared before Magistrate Anthony Vella after he was spotted by a police patrol crouching behind a car in Qawra at around 9.45pm yesterday. As the police approached him, he sped off but was apprehended near the Qawra Palace Hotel.

When the district police were asked to intervene, they realised from his bail book that the accused was supposed to have been indoors by 9pm.

Prosecuting officers Trevor Micallef and Malcolm Bondin told the court that the accused had three bail sentences pending criminal proceedings.

Additionally, Insp. Micallef added, the accused was not spotted outside his door but some 20 minutes away from his home on foot.

Aided by a translator, the accused insisted that he forgot about the time.

Lawyer Noel Bartolo told the court that this was the first time the accused had breached his bail conditions, pointing out that the accused did not own a car but travelled on foot. 

The court handed him down a six month jail sentence.

The accused served an eight-year sentence after being convicted of the rape and violent indecent assault of two Maltese women. He had also pleaded guilty to stealing items from Paceville in September 2014.

He was also arrested twice in March this year; first when he was found with 20 grams of heroin during a spot check outside the Marsa open centre and a second time when the police found a bag of cannabis as he was at the Corradino prison paying the bail deposit.