A woman who witnessed an alleged sexual assault was on Friday denied bail on charges of threatening the police and disobeying their lawful orders after trying to escape from custody.

She is believed to have vociferously objected to police questions on Friday morning and tried to escape from the police car, before creating a disturbance at the St Julian’s police station.

Sources say the woman had been in Wilga Street, Paceville in the company of a Somali man when he allegedly sexually assaulted another female.

Raquel Lopez Romero, 30 from Spain, sobbed in the dock during her arraignment before magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace on Friday morning.

Her legal aid lawyer, Martin Fenech played down the incident, saying she might have said some unnecessary things to the police but that this did not merit her being denied bail.

But the woman, who has only been in Malta since Monday, could not remember her address for the purposes of bail, other than that she lived in an apartment in Sliema. The court said it had no option but to remand her in custody.

Her Somali companion will be arraigned in the coming days.

Inspector Joseph Xerri prosecuted.