John Suda charged with violent indecent assault

Renowned actor John Suda was yesterday charged with violent indecent assault on a 22-year-old aspiring actress during a one-on-one coaching session which he had set up after contacting her over the internet.

The 64-year-old actor from St Julian’s, who was arraigned under arrest before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, was granted bail after pleading not guilty.

Mr Suda is widely considered one of the leading Maltese actors of his generation and has also had parts in a number of foreign films including Agora (2009), Final Justice (1985) and Der Skipper (1990).

Standing before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja in a checked shirt and three-quarter trousers, he was also accused of holding the alleged victim against her will by locking the room where the abuse allegedly took place.

Inspector Joseph Busuttil, who led the prosecution, told the court that the incident occurred on July 13 in Fgura but the woman only filed a police report three days later.

She told the police that Mr Suda had contacted her through her Facebook account, offering to provide individual coaching sessions so that she could improve her tele­vision acting skills, since she had only worked in theatre before.

The session started off with Mr Suda requesting her to go over her lines but some time later he locked the room, in which there was also a “massage parlour”, and kept the keys in his pocket, Inspector Busuttil said.

The accused then blindfolded the woman and told her to strip down to her underwear, telling her this was “standard practice” to remove inhibitions.

“Though she felt uncomfortable, she complied with this request, and eventually they both ended up with no clothes.”

Mr Suda is then alleged to have started fondling her and forcing her to do the same thing to him, even though she signalled she did not wish to continue.

“At one point he placed her hand on his private parts and asked her to give a description while she was still blindfolded, so as to get rid of her inhibitions and play the part better,” Inspector Busuttil said.

The woman could take it no longer and burst into tears, at which point the session was abruptly halted by Mr Suda.

‘Normal practice’

When the police questioned the accused the first time, his justification was that this sort of session was “normal practice” in the film industry.

Unconvinced by this explanation, Inspector Busuttil said he sought a second opinion from Herman Bonaci and Frida Cauchi, the producers of the TV series the woman had been shortlisted for. Mr Suda is the author of the series.

“Frida was flabbergasted, saying she was not aware such a thing had ever taken place and that she never took part in anything of the sort,” Inspector Busuttil told the court.

However, in his second interrogation the accused gave a different version, saying he had even performed such a procedure on Ms Cauchi once, the prosecution said.

Defence counsel Bernard Grech argued that the alleged victim had been shortlisted for a part which involved semi-nude scenes, in line with her role as somebody who seduced men.

On the day, his client had even tried to cancel the session, as he was running late for other commitments, but the actress did not see the message he had sent her through the internet, the lawyer said.

Throughout the session the veteran actor repeatedly asked the woman to stop if she was feeling uncomfortable, but she continued nevertheless.

Mr Suda halted the session when he noticed the woman was shedding tears, even though she denied to the actor that she had been crying, Dr Grech said.

“It is not true he placed her hand on his private parts, but she was asked to do it and she complied,” he added.

The defence requested bail, saying its client could not pull out of a number of theatre productions scheduled for the coming days at the very last moment. The prosecution objected, saying there was a possibility the accused might come in contact with some of the witnesses.

The court granted Mr Suda bail against a deposit of €2,000 and a personal guarantee of €3,000, taking into consideration that he had a clean criminal record.