A young man has been jailed for two years after he was found guilty of defiling a 12-year-old girl.

Murad Mohamed Atta, a 24-year-old Libyan who resides in St Paul's Bay, was however acquitted of defiling and raping her 15-year-old sister.

The court also found his Libyan flatmate Ashfar Abobakir Al Ash-hab, 25, not guilty on the same charges and cleared him.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani heard how on February 23, 2007, a missing persons report was filed about two sisters who had left home and failed to return.

After an exhaustive search for the two girls, the younger of them turned up at a police station in Cospicua saying they had both gone to live with two Libyans in Buġibba.

The 12-year-old told the police that her sister was having a sexual relationship with the two men and she was present at the time that these acts happened.

The two men were arrested some time later in an apartment in Buġibba.

The court heard the 15-year-old girl testify that she told the men she was 18. She added that Mr Atta and Mr Al Ash-hab had said they wanted to get rid of her younger sister because she would end up giving them away. She told her younger sister to catch a bus home and on arriving home she had gone to the police station to file a report.

The court took into consideration that the men could not be charged with rape because from the testimony of the 15-year-old girl it resulted that it was a consensual relationship. In fact, she told the court that when propositioned by the two young men she had accepted. The girl also admitted to having sexual relations with other men before she met the two Libyans.

The court said the charge of defilement on the 12-year-old stood, because the sexual advances on her older sister happened in her presence.

Police Inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono appeared for Mr Atta and Roberto Montalto for Mr Al Ash-hab.