A Frenchman who was expecting a lift home was instead brutally raped by a Sudanese who was yesterday jailed for nine years after admitting to the heinous crime.

The victim, who was 18 at the time of the incident on February 2, 2008, was raped twice by Ahmed Issa, now 26, an immigrant previously living at the Ħal Far open centre.

Another man was also involved but he was never found.

On the night in question, the victim, who was learning English in Malta, had finished his part-time job of handing out flyers in central Paceville when he realised that the only money he had left was a €5 note. His friends had already gone home and he decided to try his luck with a taxi driver and asked if he could be taken home to the host family he was living with in Balzan.

The taxi driver told him €5 were not nearly enough, inviting him to wait, perhaps he could find others who needed to get home but nobody turned up and he walked back to Paceville where he met Mr Issa and the other yet unknown man near the Burger King outlet. He asked them whether they could take him home for €5 and they accepted adding that their car was parked at the Hilton, asking him to follow them. As they walked to the car park, they told him they wanted to smoke a cigarette near the sea and all three went to Shingles Bay. Just moments after getting onto the rocky beach, they looked for his mobile phone and wallet in his pockets but he resisted and tried to push them away.

They punched and kicked him and when he called for help one of the attackers got hold of a rock and hit him on the head. They took advantage of his disorientated state and began undressing him. The other man tried to rape the student as Mr Issa held him down but was unsuccessful. Mr Issa told his companion he (the other attacker) evidently was not up to it and it would be him (the accused) who would rape their victim. This he did in a matter of a few seconds.

The other man held the victim still until Mr Issa was done. The two attackers agreed they should leave, with the victim motionless on the ground. But Mr Issa decided to rape him again, this time taking a few minutes. They then tied the victim’s feet up using his jacket and threw his jersey over his head. In agony, the victim remained on the ground until he managed to regain some strength to make it to the road where a passer-by called an ambulance.

Mr Issa was meant to stand trial by jury but decided to admit the charges when he appeared before Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano.