A man has been charged with raping a 15-year-old girl that he met at a Paceville club on Saturday night.

Humair Yaqoob, a 22-year-old Pakistani man, was arrested after the Italian girl, an English language student, told her friends that she had been raped and they tracked him down. 

It began when she met the accused at a bar, prosecuting Inspector Joseph Busuttil told the court.

They walked out together and stopped at a quiet spot, somewhere between Pembroke and St Julian’s, where they started kissing.

When the kissing gave way to further intimacy, the girl experienced pain and told the man to stop.

But she told police that he proceeded to have sex with her.

Following that encounter, the two walked back together to Paceville and parted ways.

She told her friends what had happened and a police report was filed. Her friends also immediately searched for and followed the alleged offender  through the crowds in Paceville until police arrived and arrested him.  

The police inspector said Yaqoob's version about the sequence of events matched that of the girl except for the fact that he insisted that when she asked him to stop, he did. 

He also said that on their way back, she had told him that she was sixteen.

Yaqoob was accused of non-consensual sex with the minor, sexual activities with a person under 16 as well as defilement.

He pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer argued that this was not an “open-shut case” since there might have been initial consent which, perhaps, was withdrawn.

The lawyer requested the preservation of CCTV footage from the club and also the search history on the accused’s mobile phone.

The prosecution objected to bail, stressing that the alleged victim and her friends were still to testify and would do so soon since they were in Malta only for a brief stay.

Moreover the accused had no ties in Malta, having travelled from Italy to seek a job here. He had originally arrived in Italy as an illegal immigrant and was granted a residence permit after spending some time in an open centre, the police inspector said.

He was now living with someone else at Birkirkara but had no address in his name.

Defence lawyer David Bonello said that just because the accused was a foreigner and had no ties in Malta did not mean that he would abscond. He had every intention to prove his innocence.

Moreover both the minor and her friends were also foreigners whom the accused had met at the bar and with whom he had no contact. For someone to be allowed into a bar, the person had to be of a certain age, remarked the lawyer.

Magistrate Victor George Axiak, turned down the request for bail, since there appeared to be a real risk that the accused might stultify the proceedings if he were to be released from preventive custody.

He had no ties in Malta and could possibly abscond.

Besides, the prosecution had undertaken to produce the testimonies of the minors at the first hearing of the case.

AG lawyers Darlene Grima and Danica Vella assisted Inspectors Joseph Busuttil and Zachary Zammit.