Chinese-born Dongmei Muscat, 48, of St Paul’s Bay, was conditionally acquitted after pleading guilty to keeping a brothel which she operated with her profession of masseuse, also employing another woman to do the work.

Muscat admitted before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale to doing this on 27 November and in previous months. She was arrested in a police raid and admitted that some of her earnings were made from prostitution and that she kept a brothel. Sex tools were exhibited in court which the magistrate ordered destroyed.

Defence counsel Kenneth Muscat told the court his client has a son attending an ITS course whom she is bringing up and for whom she pays the accommodation costs of the place where he lives. She was acquitted on condition of not offending again within three years, and fined €400. Inspector Yvonne Farrugia prosecuted.