Three men have been cleared of raping an underage girl after a court ruled that although the sexual acts had taken place, these were consensual.
Magistrate Audrey Demicoli ruled that the minor, who was 17 years old at the time, has escaped from home 11 times in four years and had claimed she had been sexually abused on every occasion.
Aldo Muscat, 43, from Mellieha, Noel Buttigieg, 40, from Hamrun and Arnold Farrugia, 46, from Zebbug, had been charged with raping the minor, with violent indecent assault and offending public morals with sexual acts performed in public. The alleged crimes took place in May and June 2007. Mr muscat alone had also been charged with living off the earning of prostitution and inciting the minor to sell her body.
The court heard how in May 2007, the underage girl, who at the time was six months pregnant, had escaped from her parents' home while she was on 'leave' from the Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital.
She had been missing for three weeks until the police received confidential information of her whereabouts. She was eventually found in an apartment in Qawra owned by a certain James Mifsud.
The girl had told the police that she had escaped because her boyfriend had wanted to end the relationship.
She said that she had met Mr Buttigieg in a bar in Mellieha and he had given her a lift to St Paul's Bay. She claimed he had insisting on having sex with her and she had given in because she was "scared".
Later that evening she met a person and went to his apartment where she had sex with him too. She met Mr Buttigieg again that night and had sex with him again.
The girl said there was another occasion where she had sex with Mr Buttigieg and another person in a bar and later met Mr Muscat and Mr Farrugia and went with them to Gozo where she had sex with both of them.
The minor claimed that when they came back to Malta, Mr Muscat began inciting her to become a prostitute and offer her services from a bar he owned in St Paul's Bay. She said she accepted because she was scared of him. She said she never received any money but the clients paid him around €50 for every encounter.
She continued that Mr Muscat had introduced her to Mr Mifsud who refused to pay her for sex but offered to let her live in his apartment. She eventually had sex with him too.
During her testimony in court, she told Magistrate Demicoli that she had met many men and offered them sexual services.
In her considerations, Magistrate Demicoli said the minor's version was not one that could be attested to, especially when considering that she had lied about her age and even her name.
Apart from this, she had claimed sexual abuse every time she escaped from home and could therefore not be trusted. The court said that even though she claimed she was scared of Mr Buttigieg, she still gave him her mobile number and often went back to the bar where he worked. Moreover, if she was scared of the other two accused, why did she go with them to Gozo?
Court-appointed psychiatrists testified that the girl had a social conduct disorder and had had sex with different men from the tender age of 13.
A soldier testified that the minor had told him she enjoyed having sex with unformed men "because she enjoyed ripping the uniform off them".
Magistrate Demicoli noted that the girl had made allegations on several people, accusing them of drug trafficking, living off earning of prostitution, sexual abuse and defilement but these men had been cleared of the charges.
While the court was convinced that the sexual encounters had taken place, it was also convinced that this was consensual.
She therefore cleared the men of the charges brought against them except for Mr Buttigieg's charge of offending public morals after it resulted that the two had had sex in the car. For this, he was handed a three-month jail term suspended for a year.
Police Inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted. Lawyers Veronique Dalli, Dean Hili, Arthur Azzopardi and Giannella de Marco appeared for the men.