Three men cleared of raping 17-year-old

A court has cleared three men of the rape and corruption of a 17-year-old girl after psychiatrists testified that she suffered from a mental disorder that caused promiscuity, had a manipulative character that belied her age and had been regularly sexually active since the age of 13.

The men, 43-year-old Aldo Muscat, 40-year-old Noel Buttigieg and Arnold Farrugia, hailing from Mellieha, Zebbug and Hamrun respectively, had been accused of aggravated rape, corruption of a minor, violent indecent assault with offending public morals in a public place.

Muscat alone was also charged with enticing a minor into prostitution and charges relating to the running of a brothel.

The case dates back to 2007, when the minor – who was six months pregnant at the time – ran away from her parents house for three weeks whilst on leave from Mount Carmel mental hospital. The police, acting on an anonymous tip-off, had found the minor at an apartment in Qawra.

She had testified, telling the court that she had run away from home because her boyfriend had broken up with her and didn’t want to see her again, ending up in a bar in Mellieha where she had met Buttigieg. She had told him that she needed a lift to St. Paul’s Bay and he had obliged.

The minor told the court that when they had arrived, Buttigieg “forced her to have sex with him in the car” and that she had accepted out of fear. She claimed that on the day, Buttigieg had expressed an intention to meet again that night but that she had gone to sleep with a foreigner whom she had met.

But the two slept together a second time, after which she said Buttigieg’s friends would call her up to tell her that the accused had secretly filmed their encounter. On another occasion, said the girl, she had sex with Buttigieg and a third person in a bar.

After that session, at around 05:00hrs, the minor said she went to the bar owned by the co-accused, Muscat. She said that she had somehow ended up in Gozo and met Farrugia, the third co-accused, where she serviced both men.

The minor claimed that on their return to Malta, Muscat tried to force her into prostitution and that she accepted “because he would shout at her.” The sex-work would take place in Muscat’s bar, she said, and although she never saw a penny of the takings, she had heard that men would pay Muscat Lm20 for a session with her.

She testified that sexual encounters with men other than the accused had taken place after she ran away.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli noted that the girl had lied to the accused on several occasions; about her name, her age, with the accused as well as with third parties.

It took into account the psychiatric evaluations, which described the minor as being a more capable liar that others of her age group, manipulative and creative in coming up with misleading stories. The report diagnosed her with a social conduct disorder and noted that she would seek men out for sexual encounters ever since she was 13 years old. 

The court also noted that whenever she ran away from home, the girl would allege that she had been sexually abused but in spite of her supposed fear of Buttigieg, she had given her mobile number to him and had even gone looking for him in Muscat’s bar.

One witness, an AFM soldier, had testified that the minor had called him up on his mobile, telling him that she liked to have sex with men in uniform because “she enjoyed tearing the uniform off them.”

In addition, said the court, in previous cases involving the girl and other defendants, the men had been found to be innocent.

The girl was not to be deemed a credible witness, said the magistrate and in view of the fact that the prosecution had based its case almost entirely on her testimony, cleared the men of the charges.  

However it was convinced that a sexual encounter had taken place between the girl and Buttigieg in his car when he had taken her to the bar and found him guilty of carrying out indecent acts in a public place. He was sentenced to three months imprisonment, suspended for twelve, and fined €230.

Inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted, whilst lawyers Giannella de Marco, Veronique Dalli, Arthur Azzopardi and Dean Hili defended the men.