A masseur has been kept under arrest after being accused on Thursday of raping a female tourist on holiday in Malta. 

The case allegedly happened at a spa in a St Paul's Bay hotel last Saturday. 

The woman, whose name, nationality and residence abroad were banned from publication, immediately filed a police report. 

She claimed that she was finger-raped while the man was giving her a massage. 

The following day she took her booked flight out of Malta and was not present for the arraignment of the accused.  

Clince Douglas Moses, a 28-year old Indian national, living at Xgħajra, pleaded not guilty to rape, holding the alleged victim against her will and committing sexual acts without her consent.

He said he has a full-time job as machine operator.

Police managed to track him down on Wednesday at his full-time workplace. 

The court was told he did not turn up for work at the spa on Sunday.

When asked why he had not reported for work, he told police that "he knew something had happened and did not feel comfortable going to work",  prosecuting Inspector John Spiteri said. 

Bail was objected to at this "early and premature" stage, with the most crucial issue for the prosecution being the fear of absconding.  

The prosecution pointed out that since Sunday the accused had been contacting persons in Italy and Spain to check out work opportunities there, possibly even to start up his own spa business. 

The defence rebutted that it was five days since the alleged episode and the accused had neither absconded nor approached witnesses. 

It was all "abstract fear", said lawyer Alfred Abela, labelling the prosecution's arguments as "far-fetched".

Magistrate Leonard Caruana denied bail in view of the real fear of absconding and tampering with evidence. 

The court also issued a Protection Order, warning the accused not to communicate with the victim in any manner. 

Lawyer Rene' Darmanin was also defence counsel. AG lawyer Sean Gabriel Azzopardi and Inspector Ryan M Vella were also prosecuting.