A Gozitan man was sentenced to three months in jail after being found guilty, on appeal, to sexually assaulting an English woman after he gave her a lift.

Pasqualino Cefai had not been found guilty by a Magistrate’s court of charges of having committed a violent indecent assault upon the woman whom he met at a bar in Marsalforn, Gozo in May 2010.

The court of appeal, presided by Mr Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, heard how the accused had offered a lift to the victim who had been drinking at the bar.

On the way to Victoria, the accused had allegedly tried to sexually assault his passenger by touching her, slipping his hands under her dress and kissing her on the lips.

The woman had tried to resist the man's advances and had pleaded that she felt sick so that the accused eventually let her out of his car.

The woman went to the police station in Victoria where she claimed that a man "quite big, about forty" had assaulted her.

In his statement to the police, the accused had alleged that the woman had felt sick as he was driving her home, although no visible traces of vomit had been found in the vehicle. Moreover, he had denied having laid a finger upon her.

The court noted that the first court had concluded that the prosecution had not proved its case. It noted that although eyewitnesses had testified that the victim had been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the assault, she had been consistent when recalling her ordeal.

The court remarked that the acquittal had been based on a mistaken analysis of facts and declared the accused guilty of the violent indecent assault.

In view of the accused's "voluminous criminal record sheet" the court concluded that an effective jail term was the best in the circumstances.

Cefai had been found guilty of threatening a magistrate, and sentenced to two years and four months.