Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/750768
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 NOVEMBER 2016 News Man charged with defiling wife's teenage relative, days after wedding MAT THEW AGIUS A court has remanded in cus- tody a 29-year-old man who was arraigned yesterday, accused of sexually corrupting a 14-year- old girl, just days after his wed- ding. The man, who lives in Haz- Zebbug and who is not being named on a court order, had been reported to the police by his wife, who is related to the girl. Informed sources told Mal- taToday, on the condition of anonymity, that the girl had confirmed the allegations when called in for questioning. Law yer Kathleen Grima, ap- pearing as defence counsel, asked Magistrate Claire-Louise Stafrace to impose a ban on the publication of the names of the man and the girl, who is a minor. The accused was well-known in his hometown, Grima said, and this would lead to the iden- tification of the teenager. Inspector John Spiteri, prose- cuting, agreed, telling the court that "although we normally ob- ject to this type of request, it ap- pears that the story has spread in the man's village and in the circumstances, we are not going to object." Inspector Spiteri added that by the time the police had received the report, there had already been rumours circulating in the village where both the accused and the alleged victim lived. The police had confirmed, from several people whom it had spoken to prior to the arrest and who had all said they were aware of the fact. The court upheld the request for the ban on publication for this reason and due to the fact that the accused was still pre- sumed innocent at this stage. The man pleaded not guilty to charges of corrupting a minor and participating in sexual ac- tivities with an underage girl. The prosecution objected to bail due to the "manifest fear" that the accused would tamper with evidence. "If granted bail the chance of the accused approaching the victim to inf luence her is im- minent. In his statement, the accused said that he was already aware that the second charge would be dropped because he knew the criminal complaint on corruption of minors would be dropped because the girl is fam- ily." Grima said that bail was nor- mally not granted until the mi- nor testified, but in this case, the prosecution had already all the minor's testimony in the form of her statement to police. She pointed out that the crimi- nal complaint had been filed not by the child or her mother, but by his ex-partner, who had re- ported it out of spite. There was little chance that the man would approach his ex-partner to with- draw her complaint, she argued, adding that there was an ele- ment of consent apparent, even from the charges. Inspector Spiteri clarified that the mother had not filed the report earlier because she had not been aware of what had happened. She had expressed her wish to press charges when the police had spoken to her, he said. The court refused bail and the man was remanded in custody. Tumuluri due diligence 'clean', Vitals insists TIM DIACONO VITALS Global Heathcare, the company chosen as the op- erators of the St Luke's, Gozo and Karin Grech hospitals, has moved to deny the PN's allega- tions of wrongdoing against its director, Ram Tumuluri. The PN said Tumuluri was previously in charge of a Cana- dian hotel but quit just before it went bankrupt. Citing Supreme Court documents, it said Tumu- luri had failed to pay VAT and that he had deleted the compa- ny's accounting records, stolen credit card deposits for guests, before leaving the hotel with no cash to refund them. Four days since the allegations were made, VGH said it categor- ically denied allegations that Tu- muluri was wanted or was being investigated for fraud. "VGH regularly carries out due diligence investigations on all its executives and directors. To date, all due diligence carried out on Mr Tumuluri has been clean, and contains none of the aforementioned allegations," the company said. "It is VGH's stance that before any allegations are made in pub- lic, fact checking and basic due diligence rules should be ob- served – rather than plainly re- peating unsubstantiated accusa- tions from questionable sources leading to reputational damage for people and organisations." The information was gathered from an unnamed Canadian venture capitalist contacted by PN candidate David Thake, who said Tumuluri had grouped a bunch of investors to take over management of the Nita Lake Lodge – a boutique hotel in the mountains of Whistler – that is now being administered by HS- BC. "When the going got tough and the hotel was facing several liabilities, Tumuluri – the sole signatory of the company's cash- flow – walked away, leaving a $200,000 VAT bill unpaid and taking deposits that guests had paid the hotel with him," an in- vestor said. Ram Tumuluri