Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1269236
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 JULY 2020 MATTHEW AGIUS A court has heard how a man allegedly sexually assaulted two young girls in Flo- riana yesterday in two separate incidents. Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras pre- sided as 31-year-old Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed from Somalia was charged with corrupting two underage Maltese girls aged 11 and 13 and subjecting them to non-consensual sexual acts. Inspectors John Spiteri and Jeffrey Sci- cluna explained that yesterday at around noon, the police had received a report that there was an 11-year-old girl who had been followed by the accused, who grabbed her from behind and made sex- ual advances while she was walking on her way to her grandmother's house in Floriana. An eyewitness called the police and described the man's clothing, which included a distinctive checked shirt. Whilst the police were looking for him the same man had allegedly committed a similar attack on another minor. The police were also informed by third par- ties who saw the accused molesting the 13-year-old girl. He was effectively arrest- ed in flagrante, said inspector Spiteri. Mohamed, who earlier told the court that he had no fixed place of residence, entered a plea of not guilty. Bail was not requested. The court upheld a request to ban the publication of the names of the victims. Lawyer Raisa Colombo was legal aid counsel to the accused. No bail on corruption of girls aged 11, 13 MATTHEW AGIUS THE court of criminal appeal has over- turned a man's conviction for insurance fraud. Anthony McKay had been charged with fraud and criminal damage after filing a police report on 17 May 2010, stating that he had suffered the theft of a gold choker while drunk at the Ta' Qali football stadi- um. The piece of jewellery had been insured with Middlesea, which had refused to pay McKay the sum of €7,400 euro because he had failed to inform them of his criminal record and because it had received infor- mation indicating that he might not be tell- ing the truth. After McKay had protested at the insur- ance company's offices, the company had made an ex-gratia payment of €2,000. In the three years after that, the insurance employee who had been in charge of McK- ay's case found her car tyres burst as well as scratches on the car and the front door to the claims manager's block of flats had been set on fire. Five months after the initial report, McK- ay had again gone to the police station and alleged that a certain Elsayed El Sisi was threatening to claim that McKay had lied about the choker. The two men used to set up stalls next to each other at the entrance to Valletta, and El Sisi had also been found guilty of fraud in a separate case. El Sisi had told the police that McKay had said that he had made a false claim about the choker, and that he had also slashed the tyres of a car belonging to an insurance company employee. But the court said that although the circumstances were very sus- picious, there was no unequivocal evidence to show that McKay had caused the dam- age, and noted that the court of Magistrates had also acquitted him of this charge. The court also heard a priest who had returned the choker which had been en- trusted to him under the seal of confession to McKay. The person who had given the priest the choker had taken it from the appellant, a long time after the theft, he had testified. McKay had told the police that the choker had been returned, but had failed to inform the insurance agency which had made the €2,000 payment for it. The Court of Criminal Appeal noted this extraordinary turn of events in its judg- ment overturning the man's conviction. "It is truly incredible how this choker ended up in the hands of the appellant's confessor around four months after the appellant had cashed the €2,000 compen- sation from his insurer. "But the priest does not only say that this choker was given to him by someone who found it… he adds the detail that it was handed to him by a third party who had taken it from the appellant… If anything it creates doubt as to whether the appellant was telling the truth when he said some- one had taken it from him whilst he was in a drunken state," remarked Mr. Justice Aaron Bugeja. On the basis of the evidence, the court said the man's conviction could not be seen as safe and satisfactory as reasonable doubt existed. McKay's conviction was overturned and he was declared inno- cent. Lawyer Kathleen Grima appeared for McKay. Insurance fraud: Priest handed 'stolen' gold chain under seal of confession