A 71-year-old Romanian tourist has been charged in court with defiling a seven-year-old girl at a hotel pool in St Paul’s Bay on New Year’s Day.The incident was reported to the Qawra police on Thursday by the victim’s parents. They alleged that an elderly man, described as wearing glasses and sky-blue trunks, had forced their daughter to touch him inappropriately while they were in the hotel’s indoor pool according to Times of Malta.In a testimony provided via videoconference, the young girl recounted that she and her family had arrived in Malta for a holiday three days prior. While she was playing in the shallow end of the pool, she claimed the man “squished” her legs and then twice grabbed her arm to place her hand on his private parts under his clothing.The girl stated she withdrew her hand both times and recalled the man asking her to say “I love you,” to which she responded “I like you.”The accused, Andrei Chirilov, appeared before Magistrate Jean Paul Grech on 2nd January and pleaded not guilty to charges of defiling a minor, committing non-consensual sexual acts, subjecting a minor to physical intimacy, causing a minor to fear the use of violence, and committing an offence against decency or morals.The girl’s mother also testified, noting that the incident occurred around noon in a pool occupied by several families. She stated that the accused had entered the shallow area alone and appeared to be behaving in a friendly manner toward the children before the alleged incident took place.During cross-examination, the defence suggested that the man had merely asked the girl where she was from and that another adult had answered on her behalf. The victim and her family are scheduled to leave Malta next week.•