Brothers guilty of rape must spend 10 years in jail, judges rule
'they sexually abused the boys in the most atrocious of ways'
Two brothers will have to serve their 10-year jail term after an appeal court confirmed a judgment finding them guilty of repeatedly raping two boys, also brothers.
"Judging by the evidence, this court does not have the slightest doubt that both the appellant Denis Pandolfino and the appellant Anthony Pandolfino repeatedly raped - effectively sodomised - the children who had been entrusted to them," the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled after carefully combing through all evidence produced.
In October last year Denis Pandolfino, 58, and Anthony Pandolfino, 63, were each jailed for 10 years when they were found guilty of raping and defiling the two boys, aged 10 and 11, on and before 2002. The brothers appealed, claiming they ought to be cleared of the rape charges as they had not been sufficiently proven. They also complained that their punishment was excessive.
But after carefully evaluating the case the appeal court - presided over by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice David Scicluna and Mr Justice Joseph Micallef - ruled that the first court was justified in finding the brothers guilty of rape.
The appeal court also ruled it did not see why it should change the punishment handed down by the first court.
"In order to satisfy their perversity, they managed to take control over two young boys who came from a troubled family and, rather than giving them that which they had a right to - that is, an upbringing that respected their dignity - they sexually abused them in the most atrocious of ways...," the court ruled.