The woman involved in the sexual abuse scandal from the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) told the court on Tuesday that her colleague used to massage her neck, slap her bottom, pull her top and send her sexually loaded text messages, the Times of Malta reported. 

She also testified that she had informed CEO Sigmund Mifsud about the alleged abuser’s actions on a number of occasions but he just told her that this was just “her perspective” and she was “exaggerating”. 

This was said by the woman after she took to the witness stand on Tuesday in the court case against Mifsud who is pleading not guilty to charges of attempting to tamper with evidence and to the charges of moral and/or psychological violence against the victim. 

During her testimony, she said that alleged abuse against her began a week into her job, where unsolicited physical advances were made towards her which were not welcome. On one occasion he pulled up her top to reveal her bra, she said. 

She said that she would receive sexually-explicit messages, on one instance he sent her a video of a naked woman and on another instance, he sent her a photo of a female friend with the caption “big bum”. 

The man had also told her that he would fire another employee if she did not “sleep with him” as she did with others. 

The victim testified that when she went to Mifsud to tell him about this harassment around October 2021, he told her to delete the WhatsApp messages. 

When she approached Mifsud again in January, to him how the alleged abuser was inappropriately touching her during the Christmas party, he said that the alleged abuser acts immaturely when he is drunk, and called her too “sensitive”. 

Mifsud later called her “paranoid” when she reported back to him two months later, and he also told her that she is “exaggerating” when she approached him in July. 

She further testified that her health was deteriorating and she would try to avoid work as much as possible until she handed in her resignation on 24 September. She was called into Mifsud’s office, and when she explained her reasons he said that she was being too “sensitive” and commented how he thought that they “would end up together”. He also threatened to take legal action against her.