No bail for man charged with marital rape

The thorny issue of marital rape has reared its head once again with a court being told that a woman had obtained an abortion in Russia when she fell pregnant after being raped by her husband.

A 31-year-old man from St Paul's Bay was remanded in custody earlier today after he was arraigned on charges of having violently forced himself on his wife.

Before magistrate Monica Vella this morning, the accused, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of the couple's three children, pleaded not guilty to rape, attempted rape, threatening his wife and causing her to fear that he would be violent towards her.

Inspector John Spiteri explained to the court that the woman had called at Qawra police station, where she filed a report that the accused had forced her to have sex with him on numerous occasions and had also attempted to rape her.

The man's defence team, lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri entered a plea of not guilty and requested bail, positing that the woman had filed a long list of criminal complaints, only to later retract them.

“I fear that we will be here next sitting and find that the complaint has been withdrawn. Besides, I don't know why the single principal witness wasn't summoned today. The code stipulates that the witness should be brought with the accused during the arraignment...”

Inspector Spiteri countered, arguing that if he were to summon the witness during the arraignment, it would effectively be forum shopping and a violation of the accused's human rights.

Debono highlighted the fact that the case was a highly delicate one. “This isn't a case involving strangers, these are spouses, even if they don't reside in the same house.” Camilleri added that the police had already spoken to the children and have a written statement by the alleged victim, so the fear of tampering with evidence “didn't make much sense in this context.”

At this point in time, to balance the interests of justice and the interests of the accused, the man should be released on bail, the defence argued. 

Inspector Spiteri was having none of it, however. The wife didn't choose where she now lives, Dar Merhba Bik, he replied. “Just recently, the victim fell pregnant with her fourth child and had to go to Russia to abort the pregnancy, which is a product of rape.”

Debono angrily objected that the inspector was now testifying instead of the witness, but Spiteri carried on undeterred. He said that in the past, the accused had conspired with his sibling and had kidnapped the children and taken them into his custody. “I think, today, it definitely isn't the case for bail.”

Debono also rebutted the forum shopping argument, lamenting that a culture had developed whereby the prosecution presses charges, objects to bail “and that's it.” The witness could have been brought to testify, now that she hadn't, it shouldn't be substituted by the testimony of the inspector, the lawyer argued.

The inspector replied that the declaration wasn't admissible as evidence and had it been, there wouldn't have been a need to have them testify. “The nature of the charges...these are family cases and messages can be passed through relatives. The accused had partially admitted in his statements,” he added.

Nobody had stopped the inspector from taking the statements on oath, Debono fired back. “It is a decision taken by the inquiring magistrate,” the inspector coolly replied. The defence submitted that it doubted a magistrate would object to the accused releasing a statement under oath.

The court, after mulling over the issue for some time, denied the accused bail, citing the fact that the accused had already been found guilty of similar offences and that he had been warned to change his ways but had ignored that advice.