A 17-year-old youth was jailed for a month after he was found guilty of slapping and slightly injuring a woman working at an internet cafe while under the influence of alcohol.

The incident took place at around 2am on 27 October at the entrance of an internet cafe in Ponsomby Street, Gzira.

The shop was closed, with the only light coming from the computer the woman, Sonia Gatt, was using when the youth arrived. Ms Gatt was alone at the time.

Ms Gatt testified that she thought that the youth, who was visibly drunk, wanted to buy cigarettes, and told him that he could use the vending machine at the entrance. But he asked for beer, and started banging on the glass front door when she told him the shop was closed.

She said that she panicked and opened the door to explain, only for the youth to slap her hard, bruising her face.

Ms Gatt added that a third person who was passing by at the time pulled the youth out of the shop, allowing her to close the door. But shortly afterwards, she decided to follow him to enable the police to arrest him.

Prosecuting inspector Jonathan Ransley subsequently said that when he interrogated the accused, who hails from Somalia, said that he had drunk three bottles of vodka and that while he could remember going to Paceville, he could not remember anything else.

The youth chose to testify, a laborious process that involved the use of two translators, one translating from Maltese to English and the other from English to Somali. The case was actually meant to be heard yesterday, but was postponed after the latter translator absented himself: he was fined €100 over this by Magistrate Carol Peralta.

The accused reiterated that he did not remember what had happened, and that he had drunk three bottles of vodka straight. He also explained that he arrived in Malta some nine months ago.

Insp. Ransley then pointed out that the accused had been inconsistent in his testimony, and that he was conveniently failing to remember what could incriminate him.

But defence counsel Joe Ellis insisted that the prosecution failed to prove any malign intentions behind his client’s act, and pointed out that the victim herself confirmed his drunkenness.

He said that Ms Gatt could have easily asked the police to intervene instead of opening the door, and that his skinny client could not be described as an intimidating person. He also asked the magistrate to take his client’s particular situation – his relatively recent exposure to alcohol, and the fact that he had recently been uprooted from his home – into consideration.

Dr Ellis insisted that the only charge that should stand was that his client was too drunk to take care of himself, and that in any case, given the circumstances and the accused’s age, a conditional discharge or a probation period was suitable.

But Magistrate Peralta argued differently, noting that Ms Gatt’s testimony was clear and consistent, and that drunkenness should not serve as an excuse in such cases.

He thus jailed the youth, who has been in preventive custody since the incident, to a month’s imprisonment.