A young Polish tourist, who stripped down to his birthday suit while under the false impression that he was close to the beach was conditionally discharged for two months after reading out a profuse apology in open court.
Alexander Philipp Kolacz, a 20-year old currently on holiday in Malta, was taken to court under arrest hours after the unfortunate episode which took place at around 8am on Thursday close to a school in Baħrija.
A teacher watching over her young pupils had allegedly caught sight of the young man who was naked. The police were duly informed.
Officers who arrived on site shortly after found the man in the nude and evidently drunk. His clothes were retrieved further up the road where they had been discarded.
Questioned by the police, the young man had claimed that he had been dropped off at Baħrija and told that the beach was nearby, in an attempt to explain his misbehaviour.
It was a sober and greatly repentant man who entered the courtroom a few hours later, fully dressed and evidently embarrassed by the whole affair, pleading guilty to having committed an act against decency or morals, exposed himself naked whilst also being drunk in public.
“What you’ve done is quite silly, but since you were near a school with children passing by, it’s rather serious,” presiding magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit remarked.
“I’m terribly sorry. I won’t do it again. I was in the open countryside, not next to any people,” the man promptly blurted out, bowing respectfully over and over before the magistrate as though to emphasise his repentance.
“I came to this beautiful country as a tourist and I want to apologise,” reading out from a sheet of paper a prepared statement of apology.
In view of the circumstances of the case, his apology and the fact that the man’s stay was to last until the end of the month, the magistrate declared him guilty upon his own admission and conditionally discharged him for two months.
“You must be careful not to commit any other offence,” the magistrate warned as the man nodded in understanding.
Inspectors Robert Vella and Elliott Magro prosecuted. Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace was legal aid counsel.