Massage therapist tells shocking story of being raped by a client in court

A Thai masseuse told a harrowing story in court of her brutal sexual assault and rape by a male customer, who hit her on the head and threw her to the ground before tying her up and raping her.

Judge Kevan Azzopardi heard evidence from one of the three alleged victims of Harona Conateh, who was brought to court last month.

The 32-year-old Gambian is accused of three counts of rape. In June and July, employees of three different massage parlors in Sliema and Birkirkara were raped.

The names of the alleged victims are not being published in accordance with a court order.

The first to testify was a forensic expert who had been commissioned by the investigating judge to download and analyse video surveillance recordings from several locations.

Video recordings from some cameras in the area had already been overwritten, he said, but one of the cameras from which footage was successfully extracted clearly showed a person entering the premises at 2:30 p.m. on June 22 wearing a brightly colored hat, “which was probably yellow,” Bermuda jeans and a striped shirt. A person wearing exactly the same clothing was then seen on video leaving the premises at 2:40 p.m.

Victim testifies

One of the man's three alleged victims, a Thai woman, testified in court on Monday that a tall black man walked into the massage parlor where she worked on July 3 and rang the doorbell.

He was wearing a dark printed polo shirt, a yellow beanie hat and Bermuda shorts, she said, confirming that she had seen the man for the first time.

When she opened the door, he asked if he could have a massage. The witness replied that she had another client appointment at 5 p.m. and only had 30 minutes left for him. “He spoke English with a strong accent and communicated with gestures,” the witness said.

Prosecutor Angele Vella asked the witness what services she had offered the man. “Massage,” the woman replied, adding that after telling him the prices, she gave him a brochure with the different types of massage on offer. The man had asked for a 90-minute massage and it had to be explained to him that this was not possible because the masseuse only had half an hour. She said she could offer a 30-minute Thai back and shoulder massage with oil. “He said OK. 30 minutes OK,” and then handed over the amount in cash.

But then things started to go wrong. In the massage room, the man asked her to “massage his nipples,” she recalled. When she refused, he reacted violently, knocking her glasses off her head, grabbing her wrist and throwing her to the ground, where he then sexually abused her with his hand, ignoring her screams, kicks and pleas for mercy.

She said the man then tied her hands together with a rope. Realizing the man was too strong for her to resist, she tried to buy time by telling him that if he untied her, she would give him whatever he wanted.

The woman was untied and allowed to stand up to catch her breath before the man again asked her to touch his chest. She tried to change the subject by asking him about his family, hoping to elicit a sympathetic response.

But the ruse didn't work. The man suddenly pushed her face down on the ground and raped her, she said. When he was finished, he walked to the door and told her, “Next time, don't do that to me.”

The court was told that the woman had suffered bruising and injuries to her ribs. A gynecological examination confirmed that the woman had also suffered internal vaginal injuries.

She said she was suffering from depression as a result of the incident.

The witness described her attacker as someone wearing a dark T-shirt and a yellow cap. This description matched the CCTV expert's observations.

The meeting was adjourned to 17 September at 2 p.m.

Prosecutors Angele Vella and Nicholas De Gaetano represent the Attorney General’s Office in the proceedings.

Lawyer Ilona Schembri is Conateh’s defense attorney.

Police inspectors Clayton Camilleri, Brian Xuereb and Wayne Buhagiar filed charges