Two brothers who back in 2006 were accused of running a brothel, this morning were cleared of all charges with Magistrate Carol Peralta apologising for the delay in procedures which took six years to hear five witnesses.

Ray Micallef, 53 and his brother Vince,37 both from Sliema were accused of operating a brothel in Paceville without the necessary licence. In the delivery of the court’s decision, magistrate peralta held that from the evidence put forward by the prosecution there was no proof that the business outlet was being used as a brothel or that immoral acts were being done inside the same outlet.

On October 17, 2006, 37 women namely 20 Romanians, 7 Hungarians, 4 Czechs, 2 from Slovakia and one from Estonia, Poland, Morocco and a local were together with eight owners places of entertainment in Paceville and Qawra accused with indecent and immoral acts and prostitution. Amongst these were the two Micallef brothers as owners of ‘Huggins Darlings’.

During a night of raids, the Police had arrested the women and later arraigned them in court based on the fact that they were found in underwear or indecent clothing. This case had caused a stir in the local media and a Judiciary protest was filed against the Commissioner of Police with the owners of the establishments claiming that the actions of those employed with them as dancers did not constitute a criminal act. All women were subsequently cleared of the charges.

Lawyers Franco Debono u Marion Camilleri appeared for the accused