Indian charged with indecent assault on woman, had done it ‘twice before’

During evidence given before Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, restaurant owner and Indian national Sunil Khosla, said that the accused and 25 year-old co-national Jaswinder Singh had indecently assaulted the young woman, who is also Indian, "at least twice before."

Khosla said that he had hosted the young woman at his and his wife's home, and had even given her a job at his restaurant.

The woman, Khosla said, had turned up crying at the restaurant, claiming that the accused Jaswinder Singh - who was also her former boyfriend - had tried to abuse her.

Khosla accompanied the woman to the Msida Police Station to lodge a report, and while the case was being investigated, the accused had been brought in, who told him in Indian: "please don't prosecute me."

Khosla's evidence meanwhile raised eyebrows in court, when he said that he was asked by the Police Inspector to act as an interpreter for the accused during the investigations. Khsola said that the Inspector knew that he was an interested party in the case, but still kept him as an interpreter.

According to Khosla, the accused made his plea not to be prosecuted in front of the investigating officer, and after that he had denied the abuse.

When asked about what he knew about the other instances where the accused allegedly tried to abuse the woman, Khosla said that the accused had phoned her father in India to apologise, and also promised that he would not do anything of the sort again.