An eight-year jail term for rape and for attempted rapes was confirmed on appeal after a judge dismissed the defence’s claims that the evidence provided was insufficient to convict the defendant.

Last August, Mumen Traore Trabulé was convicted of raping a woman and attempting to rape two others in Ta’ Xbiex between March and August of 2008.

But the defence argued that the sentence was based on an incorrect evaluation of the facts. It claimed that the victims’ testimonies had some inconsistencies which shed doubts on the veracity of their claims.

The defence also argued that not enough effort was made to confirm that Mr Trabulé had been properly identified as the perpetrator. The victims, it said, practically never referred to him specifically but referred to the perpetrator as “that African” or “that black one” (dak l-iswed).

A further witness, who testified that she saw a man enter a victim’s apartment at the time of the incident, said that the man she saw was “not recognisable, of a different race”.

But Mr Justice Michael Mallia pointed out that the conviction was based on further evidence: Including that an attempted rape failed because he was caught in the act, as well as forensic evidence. Moreover, he said, the defendant had been in the area for months, and it was not difficult for people who lived there to identify him.

The judge dismissed any inconsistencies in the victims’ testimony as minor, and that there was no doubt that Mr Trabulé raped a woman and tried to rape another two, before confirming the sentence in its entirety.