Watch: ‘It’s My Fault, I Let Him Rape Me’ – Magistrate Rules Against Victim In Mount Carmel Rape Case
Two and a half years later, the Maltese woman who was raped by a carer from Mount Carmel hospital in her own bed, has been told by a Magistrate that it was not a case of rape as consent was given.
Emma Agius, who had first opened up about her story back in July 2022, had been waiting for the rape case sentence to be given all this time – and it’s far from what she expected, or deserved.
Taking to her Instagram, Emma shared her reaction to the news, explaining how difficult it’s been to process this decision, especially after such a long wait.
“I’ve been told that it was my fault I let him rape me, and it’s all my fault cause they told me it doesn’t look like there was any abuse,” she said in the emotional video, which was posted yesterday on the event of Human Rights’ Day.
“He could have killed me, he could have killed me, if he killed me I wouldn’t be here,” she said.
“This was very devastating, mentally and physically, I don’t think it’s fair that the Magistrate ruled that there was consent and that there was no rape,” Emma said.
“You have no idea how many videos I took trying to explain myself, but there is no need to explain myself because I know my truth. And the fact that the Magistrate is a ‘she’, and she doesn’t understand what consent means, given all the reports that were written, I think there needs to be more awareness on what consent really means,” she appealed.
Consent is typically present when two parties have given permission or reached an agreement for something to happen.
“And from a legal dictionary that I found, it clearly says that consent means that there needs to be an agreement between two people, and we all know that,” Emma continued.
“And there was no agreement between me and my rapist, I pretended I was still asleep, I froze, in a flight fight freeze situation, I froze, and that’s part of nature.”
“I was terrified and I feared my life,” she expressed.
“I was literally living my last few minutes and the way that he manipulated me, even the dynamic of our relationship, he was a carer and I was his patient at Mount Carmel… I think it says a lot who the magistrate is, and happy Human Right’s Day, I guess,” she said, concluding the video.
She first met the man, who is a Maltese national, when she was a patient at Mount Carmel and he continued speaking to her after she was discharged.
He had sent her a friend request after she was discharged from the hospital, and insisted that he continued to check up on her at her own home. Although Emma refused the first few times he asked, she eventually gave him her address, as he assured her he only wanted to help.
The rape then happened in her own bed, when she was asleep, leading to the man’s suspension from his position at Mount Carmel Hospital.
Emma’s story is one that has touched many across the nation, with the artist’s story first coming to the forefront through the drawings she created in response to the traumatic event.
What do you make of this ruling?