A 47-year-old man has been imprisoned for five years after the court found him guilty of engaging in sexual activities with a minor, who happened to be the 14-year-old daughter of his partner.
He was also found guilty of corrupting the minor and being in possession of indecent footage of the young girl. The man has remained unnamed by court order.
A police report was initially filed back in September 2012 by the woman, her daughter, and the two children of the accused. They provided the police with the footage, which shows the minor performing oral sex on the accused.
It emerged that a mobile phone was used to record the sexual acts, with the footage depicting the lower part of the accused's body and the minor's face. She identified the accused as being the one on film, and said that the sexual act had been performed some seven times between January and September 2012.
The day after the report was filed, the minor's mother approached the police and informed them that the man in the footage was not in fact the accused. It later transpired that the minor had asked to speak with the police without her mother present, and confirmed her original story, stating that he had been her mother's partner for five years.
The 14-year-old also told the police that the accused handled the filming, while she carried out the sexual act consensually.
Upon discovering the footage, the minor's mother argued with her partner heavily. They made up later on however and he returned to live with them in Msida.
Questions were raised as to why the girl had said that the man in the footage was not the accused, the minor responded by saying she did not want him to end up in prison, adding that she did not want to be unfair since the sexual acts were consensual.
She said that this was not her first time engaging in sexual activities, having done so with a 17-year-old boy and one her age.
It emerged that the accused's daughter had forced the minor to file a police report in a vengeful attempt to cause her father trouble. The daughter of the accused had left her father's resident to reside with her sister, but hoped for his apartment to be seized in order for her to take it instead. She had also threatened the minor's mother that if she did not report her father's actions to the police, she would report her and have her children taken away from her.
The accused said that he would often argue with his partner over the behaviour of the minor, denying all charges brought against him.
The minor's credibility was called into question by the defence team, pointing out that she had changed her story a number of times.
Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, presiding over the case, found the minor to be honest in her testimony, believing that she had previously lied in order to protect the accused, and was frightened of the daughter and her threats.
The court found that the accused had exploited the girl, even though she claimed that it was consensual, by leading her to believe that their situation at the time was completely normal. The fact that the girl tried to defend the accused is testament to the fact that for her, it was normal to perform oral sex on her mother's partner who also happens to be far older.
He was ordered to pay court expenses and a protection order was issued in favour of the mother and minor.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/1RENZKM
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