Sudanese Ahmed Issa, 23, who lives in Hal Far has been jailed for nine-years after admitting to raping an 18-year-old Frenchman in February 2008.

The Frenchman had been in Malta to learn English.

He was in Paceville with friends distributing flyers for a party the following Sunday. By 1 a.m. his friends had left and he tried to find a taxi to take him home to Balzan. However, he only had €5 and could not find a taxi to take him home for that amount.

He walked towards Burger King, where he saw two men – the accused and another man, and asked them if they would take him to Balzan for €5.

They asked him to follow them to their car, which was parked near the Hilton Hotel.

Then they told him that they wanted to smoke a cigarette and walked to Shingles Bay.

They started smoking a cigarette and at one point they became violent and started fighting the victim, they hit him and undressed him and when he tried to fight back, they pushed him towards the sea.

When they got him unconscious, the accused held the victim while the other man tried to rape him unsuccessfully. The accused then raped the victim while the other man continued to hit him as he tried to fight off his aggressors.

They then bound his feet with his jacket and left. However, the accused returned moments later and raped him again.

The victim spent 10 minutes in agony then freed himself and went to seek help. A Maltese man called an ambulance which took him to hospital for treatment.

The other aggressor was never found.