Mother trusted accused

The mother of two boys who were allegedly raped by two adult brothers said she trusted her sons with the men and would have never excepted such things to happen.

The woman, who burst into tears when she stood on the witness stand, started her testimony yesterday with the words: "It hurts a lot. I would have never expected such a thing to happen. What I did, I did with good intentions... I trusted them as being good men."

She testified before Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono in the trial by the bench of Denis Pandolfino, 58, and his 63-year-old brother Anthony who are pleading not guilty to raping and defiling two of her sons, on and before 2002, that is, when the boys were 10 and 11 years old.

The Pandolfinos are also charged with holding the boys against their will and the illegal possession of pornographic material.

The mother explained how she got to know the Pandolfinos through Anthony Pandolfino, who was friends with her neighbour. He eventually started going to her house and one of her sons, who was then 11 years old, liked spending time with him.

"I trusted them as good men. I would have never imagined what would happen," she said.

"Eventually Anthony asked me if he could bring up my (11-year-old) son and I accepted. I thought he looked like a trustworthy man and let my son go with good intentions. It's not that I did not want my son but he seemed happy around Anthony and I thought he would make him happier."

She said that, till today, her sons never -mentioned anything about what was being done to them. She first heard about the abuse when a social worker called for her while she was at work. The woman also said that a month after the Pandolfinos were arraigned she sent a Christmas card to Denis Pandolfino.

The card, she said, contained angry words like "Denis the menace".

When the card was read out in court, it turned out to be a birthday card in which she told him that he now had enough time to write letters. The was referring to a letter Denis Pandolfino had written to her husband telling him she was with another man. This had made her angry as he had interfered in matters that were none of his business.

The mother, who was the last witness for the prosecution, was followed to the stand by Denis Pandolfino.

In a five-hour testimony, he explained that he got to know the boys' family because his brother used to spend time at a family friend who was a neighbour of the boys' mother.

When the mother sent one of her sons (the 11-year-old) to live with his brother he did not like it because he feared that people might think that his brother, a bachelor, abused the boy.

Mr Pandolfino said that in 2001 the boys' mother broke up with her partner and, after they spent some time going out as friends, she stopped meeting him.

Then in 2002, after he had not been speaking to the mother for about a year, she phoned him and asked him to keep her two sons, the 10-year-old and another son who was about five years old, while she went abroad with her Tunisian partner. He explained how he could not turn down the boys and welcomed the 10-year-old at his house while the younger one went to stay with a man who claimed to be his father.

The witness went on to explain how, as time passed, he began to suspect that the boys' mother was planning to take them to Tunis for good and he started getting worried about this for various reasons. He informed a social worker that he suspected the children were going to be moved away from Malta.

"I became very worried. I got depressed and even went out on sick leave with worry... I started getting better when I learnt they were still at the institute," he said.

Denis Pandolfino denied raping or abusing any of the boys.

"I suspect that the allegations were made because they found out that I made the report to the social worker and, as a result, their mother could not take them out of the institute," he said.

"I came to this conclusion since, after I filed the report, their attitude towards me changed," he said explaining that, whereas before the boys were happy to see him, they then started snubbing him.

He denied taking photographs of naked children but recalled one occasion when he took a photo of the boys going to school to send it to their father who was foreign.

At this point the judge asked Denis Pandolfino why he felt so attached to these children, attached enough to get a depression over them and to take photos of them entering school when he was on sick leave and when they were not speaking to him.

He said he cared about them and wanted to ensure nothing bad happened to them.

He admitted to the possession of adult pornography and that he sometimes saw child pornography when it popped up while he was surfing the internet. He used to look at them, because he liked photography, but then delete them. He added that it was a coincidence that hundreds of child pornographic pop-ups ended up in his deleted folder.

When Denis Pandolfino ended his testimony, his lawyer Joseph Mifsud, started his defence speech and questioned whether the children were telling the truth or whether their allegations were based on their imagination.

"Is this a story of truth or one based on imagination where what is seen, even on television, is mentally transferred onto someone else?"

Dr Mifsud pointed out certain inconsistencies in the evidence given on Wednesday by the boys.

"What impressed me in this case is how investigators just based their case on what the children were saying but no one verified details in their testimony such as whether certain people really exist." The police were duty bound to safeguard the rights of the accused as well as the children, he said.

Anthony Pandolfino chose not to give evidence and sat in the dock, near his brother, as he heard his lawyer Joseph Giglio make submissions in his defence.

Dr Giglio argued that evidence brought forward by the prosecution did not prove the case to the level of moral conviction.

He too noted inconsistencies in the testimony of the boys and this cast a reasonable doubt on their credibility.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara is prosecuting.