A hotel guest who allegedly raped a female tourist staying in the room next door was remanded in custody upon his arraignment following testimony by the alleged victim and her friends. 

Mark Wade Hopkins, a 50-year-old American national, was arrested and charged with raping the woman, who was unable to offer resistance at the time. 

The incident took place during the night between Saturday and Sunday inside a St Paul’s Bay hotel where both the accused and the victim were staying. 

The woman was on holiday in Malta with friends. 

One of her friends recalled that, before the incident, they had seen the accused at the hotel pool and had not seen anything “weird” in his behaviour. 

On Saturday evening, the group were out partying at a St Paul’s Bay club and the accused was there too.

The alleged victim testified that they first drank wine, but she later had a few shots of Bacardi and a couple of other drinks.

“We all got drunk,” one of her friends told the court when testifying in the presence of the accused.

The alleged victim testified via videoconference, recalling how that evening they had returned to the hotel after the party. 

While her friends went down to buy cigarettes, the guest next door came to her room and she ended up in his room where he pushed her onto the bed. 

He pulled up her clothes and touched her intimately, even though she told him to stop. 

He continued, only stopping when he heard a knock at the door. 

Her friends testified that when they headed out for cigarettes, they found the shops closed. 

So they accepted a cigarette offered by a security officer who was on duty that night, stopping for a chat while they smoked. 

When they went back to their room, they did not find their friend there and so knocked on “Mark’s door”.

“But there was no sound,” one of the women recalled.

A few minutes later, their friend entered the room.

“She wasn’t acting strange. She was fine,” recalled the same witness. 

But as soon as one of her friends made some kind of joke, she suddenly flipped. 

Within seconds she collapsed on the floor, her body seemingly “blocked” telling her friends that she had been raped. 

Before going downstairs for a cigarette, one of her friends had seen the accused outside her hotel room, talking to the alleged victim. 

“They seemed very friendly,” she explained. 

Asked by the accused’s legal aid lawyer, the witness confirmed that it was all “perfectly quiet” and no sound was heard from the room next door when they knocked at the door. 

The partition wall between the two rooms was quite thin, added the witness. 

The prosecution objected to the accused’s request for bail in view of the serious nature of the offence, the fact that the accused had no ties in Malta and also because proceedings were still at a premature stage. 

The legal aid lawyer assisting the accused stressed that the man was still presumed innocent and trustworthy.

Since the main prosecution witnesses had testified before leaving Malta, there were no other civilian witnesses to be summoned. 

However, the prosecution rebutted that there were other civilians who were still to testify. 

After hearing submissions, the court, presided over by Magistrate Elaine Mercieca, turned down the request in view of the nature of the charges and the fact that the accused had no ties in Malta. 

AG lawyers Darlene Grima and Danika M Vella prosecuted together with Inspectors Joseph Busuttil and Warren Galea.