A taxi driver walked out of court a free man on Sunday after the woman who accused him of raping and impregnating her forgave him and dropped her claims.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello heard the woman withdraw her claim when called to testify and therefore acquitted the man of all charges.

The court heard how the police began investigating the matter when they received a report from the woman claiming that her partner had raped her several times last month. The woman went to the police accompanied by a social worker.

She testified that the two met in Marsa in November, chatted for a while and then decided to meet.

They went to eat at a Marsaxlokk restaurant and afterwards went for a drive towards Delimara in his car since he works as a taxi driver. She told the police he began to caress her but she told him she was not interested unless they married.

She said he told her they could get married after they have sex, which they did. Some three weeks later she realised she was pregnant. She told the man they really had to get married now that she was pregnant so he asked her to move in with him in his apartment in Birżebbuġa.

The first two nights she slept alone but then they shared the bed and engaged in sex. She moved out after six days.

She filed the report on Saturday, a month since they last met in December, claiming that she had not consented to the intercourse and that she had been raped.

The woman admitted that she had asked to borrow his phone to call a friend but after the phone call had gone through his phone and found messages from other women.

She also said that she recently called him to pick her up from hospital.

After pleading not guilty to raping the woman, the prosecution asked the court to allow the alleged victim to testify since they had been informed that she wanted to renounce to everything, also due to the fact that she is pregnant with his child.

The court ordered a ban on the publication of any names. 

She told the magistrate that the two were in an on-and-off relationship and that she wanted the relationship to continue.

“I want to live a happy life with him… I want to be with him and the baby as a family. Our families resolved the issue and we will get married. I forgive him and forget these proceedings,” she testified through an interpreter.

Asked by the court whether she was scared something else would happen to her once the proceedings stopped, the woman replied in the negative. 

“No, I am not afraid of this. I came here after I thought of everything. I understand that I cannot raise these allegations again,” she said.

The magistrate grilled the woman to ensure her withdrawal of complaint was genuine and voluntary. Rape carries a maximum of 12 years in jail.

After hearing the witness testify, where she forgave him and said she would like to raise their child as a family and continue the relationship with him, Magistrate Montebello declared the proceedings as extinguished, meaning he could walk freely out of court.

Lawyers Cynthia Tomsaulo and Sean Gabriel Azzopardi from the Attorney General’s office prosecuted along with Police Inspector Joseph Busuttil. Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.

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