Man admits to hotel sexual assault on Italian tourist

An Egyptian national, already on bail for sexual offences, has pleaded guilty after being charged in connection with a sexual assault reported by an Italian woman.

Plasterer Najah Agheez, 34, who has no fixed place of residence, was arrested yesterday after investigators identified him from CCTV footage captured at an establishment in Buġibba.

Inspector Ryan Vella, prosecuting together with lawyers Cythia Tomasuolo and Joseph Azarov, charged Agheez with committing a non-consensual sexual act on the woman, harassing her, subjecting her to an unwanted act of physical intimacy, detaining her against her will and causing her to fear that violence would be used against her.

He was also charged with stealing her mobile phone, causing a public disturbance during the night time and being drunk in a public place.

Agheez was further accused of breaching bail conditions imposed on him in March this year, in connection with a separate case where is accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old girl in February 2022.

Arraigned before magistrate Abigail Critien on Friday afternoon, the man admitted to the charges. 

No details of the circumstances which had led to the man’s arrest emerged during the arraignment.

His lawyer, Carmel Gatt, requested a punishment close to the minimum “in view of the circumstances.”

Unusually, the prosecuting lawyers then asked for permission to approach the magistrate’s bench so as to discuss punishment.

Asked again what he would be pleading, the defendant confirmed his guilty plea.

In the prosecution’s submissions on punishment, Tomasuolo asked for a custodial sentence of minimum duration, in view of the nature of the charges and the fact that he was undergoing proceedings for a similar crime. 

In his submissions on punishment, the man's defence lawyer said that the defendant had gone out to drink that day, as it had been the anniversary of his mother’s death. “He does not know exactly what he did.” He asked the court to order that Agheez receive treatment for alcohol addiction. 

The case was adjourned for sentencing to May 4. No request for bail was made.

Media reports quote the victim, Lara Ali Shahin, a teacher and local councillor from the Veneto region of Italy, as saying that her assailant had followed her into the hotel on Sunday, after she had rejected his advances earlier that day.

Shahin said that her attacker had followed her into her room, where he allegedly threw her on the bed and sexually assaulted her. Hotel staff, alerted by her screams, had gone to the room and dragged the man off Shahin. Agheez had then fled.