Jailed for attempted rape

A man was yesterday jailed for seven years for attempting to rape his two nieces.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera condemned the man's actions as "barbaric and animalistic" and turned down the defence's plea for clemency arguing that such actions "horrified society in the worst possible way" and it had to be ensured they were not repeated.

The man, whose identity cannot be revealed by court order, was found guilty of trying to rape the two sisters, who were minors, defiling them and holding them against their will.

He was, however, cleared of rape and of possessing pornographic material.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera heard the girls' mother explain that after an argument between the sisters the eldest told her she had been sexually abused.

The girl did not want to speak about it but the mother insisted until she finally agreed to write down who her assailant was. The girl wrote the word "uncle" on a sheet of paper.

The mother explained that since the girls only had one uncle living in Malta she immediately suspected in her husband's brother.

She then asked her younger daughter if anyone had touched her and, although the girl initially denied, she later said her uncle had.

The mother explained she often went to the uncle's house with the girls to help his wife look after their son who had a disability.

The magistrate heard the elder sister explain that the matter had been going on since she was five years old. She gave a detailed description of what took place and said she had not told anyone because, although scared, at the time she did not know it was wrong. But, she added, now that she was in her teens she realised what had in fact happened.

She also said he had shown her pornographic videos.

The elder sister said she was afraid of her uncle who used to warn her not to tell anyone of what they were doing because he would be angry.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera heard the uncle deny ever having any form of sexual contact with the girls or showing them pornographic videos.

But the magistrate noted that during his testimony he seemed to be more concerned with shedding doubt on the sisters' version that giving his own.

She noted that the sisters' version had been consistent since the beginning and that the descriptions they gave were too detailed to have been invented.

The magistrate heard court expert Isabelle Saliba report on her medical examination of the girls, on the basis of which the court could not find the man guilty of rape.

As for the possession of pornographic videos, the magistrate ruled that although the videos seized from the uncle's house were pornographic, the intent for their possession had not been proven to satisfy the requirements prescribed by law.

In her 40-page judgment, Magistrate Scerri Herrera severely condemned the uncle's actions saying the trauma he had made the sisters go through would remain with them for the rest of their lives.

The innocent minors, she said, had been exposed to disgusting, immoral and scandalous scenes and the court could not fail to condemn the barbaric and animalistic actions of the uncle.

Police Superintendent Bartolomeo Mula and Inspectors Pio Pisani and Louise Vella prosecuted.