It probably sounded like a bright idea to impress the girls in Paceville. Or at least a bit of fun. But in one of the most bizarre cases of the year, seven Swedish youngsters yesterday ended up in court charged with "lewd acts in public" after they walked around the popular nightspot in boxer shorts.

Clearly bemused by the experience, the boys aged between 16 and 17 giggled quietly as the inspector explained the charge. The language students were charged with performing "indecent or immoral acts in public" while in Paceville on what the police considered to be a risqué Saturday night out.

"Do you plead guilty?" Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera asked a boy who seemed to be the leader of the group. "Yeah, yeah," was his quick reply, followed by a puzzled look when the magistrate asked if he knew what he was being charged with. "Erm, no" was his equally speedy response.

"We were running around in boxer shorts, we thought it would be funny but it was kind of stupid," he explained.

His friends, all lined up in tatty clothes after a night in a cell, more or less repeated his version or simply pleaded guilty before they were discharged on condition that they do not 'offend' again within a year.

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