Gentlemen's clubs need to be regulated by legislation, judge insists

A judge presiding over appeal proceedings in respect of two owners of a gentlemen's club has stressed the need for laws to regulate such places of entertainment in a society that is becoming "increasingly permissive."

Madam Justice Edwina Grima highlighted the need for such intervention by the government when presiding over the case of Raymond Micallef and Vincent Micallef who had been cleared of running a brothel and of breaching employment regulations.
The two men were acquitted in 2012 but an appeal was filed by the Attorney General.
The case dated back to November 2006 when police raiding a club called Huggins in Paceville came across a number of scantily-dressed Romanian girls chatting with male customers at the bar, while two others were performing a pole and lap dance respectively.
The court was told that during the raid the police had found nothing illegal. The prosecution had not summoned either the girls or the customers as witnesses.
Madam Justice Grima observed that although gentlemen's clubs have mushroomed, and in spite of a consultation plan to regulate such outlets, the state had so far promulgated no legislation in this regard.
The time was ripe for such clubs...

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