Man jailed for indecent assault, defilement
A man found guilty of indecently assaulting a girl and defiling another has been convicted for three years and six months.
The man cannot be identified by court order.
One of the victims’ mothers reported her partner to the police after her daughter’s friend told her that he had harassed her.
During the investigations, the mother testified she also found out that her partner had also harassed her daughter when she had asked to sleep between the two adults on a stormy winter night.
“Apparently, as I went to the bathroom... he undressed her pyjama and her underwear and began pressing his genitals to her,” she said, adding that when the girl pulled her underpants up, he began to masturbate.
The mother had told the court that she had never suspected about the abuse because the man had two daughters of his own so she assumed that she could trust him.
She had lived with the accused for two years during which he had also been physically aggressive.
When the mother of the other girl testified, she said the two girls had come home and told her that they needed to file a report with the police.
The mother said her daughter had told her that “he sent her to buy a sheet of cardboard and as she was walking to the shop... he went after her and grabbed her from the waist and pressed her towards him”.
The accused had denied the charges lodged against him but he was found guilty of indecent assault, defilement and offending public morals in a public place.
In handing down judgement, Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima said “this punishment is being accorded after the court took in consideration the criminal record of the accused and the fact that this case involves two minor girls and a young female adult and the fact that in the realms of lewd acts, all things being considered, the acts committed on these three females where of a more minor nature”.
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K Sullivan
Jul 31st 2010, 12:20
Dear Maria Zammit, Divorce has nothing to do with sexual abuse of minors, in fact it is often a family member who perpetrates the innocence of young children. Unfortunately ignorance like yours only helps to cover it up by not seeing things as they really are by confused and closed minded religious conditioning. If you want to comment on abuse or divorce I suggest you actually read about both subjects instead of making such preposterous suggestions. Your way of thinking, although honorable in conviction does nothing to help the children in abusive families or otherwise. Read, listen and then read some more, but please spare yourself the embarrassment of making such statements which could lead to turning a blind eye to more abuse.
Hip hip hurray, to Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima for this and all the good work she does.
mario P. Sciberras
Jul 31st 2010, 10:16
Is this a sample of the mature debate on divorce we expect to get over the next few months???? Who told the lady that these people were divorced???
Maria Zammit
Jul 31st 2010, 06:56
Reading this article puts me in mind of why these things happen.
For all those who wish divorce on this country, perhaps you should rethink if it is healthier for our society to give more value to reconiliation of marriages or better still, to take care of your marriage and not mess it up, then risk putting children and yourself in such situations.
Better to live alone if a marriage breaks up then to risk being made a fool of twice over. Moreover, putting children through the trauma of readjusting to a new partner.
I believe marriage is forever and moreover do not believe a second marriage should be contemplated even when one of the partner dies, whilst children are still minors. My father died when I was eleven and my fear was that my mother would marry again and we children would have to adjust to someone new who might be a monster. Mum never looked at another man till she died at 82, but in a children's mind the fear is always there.
Whoever promotes divorce is a spineless individual with no values except selfishness and shortsightedness and I hope The Times doesn't censure this!!!
t. borg
Jul 31st 2010, 09:41
ma tistax tiehu kaz partikulari bhall dan u tghid li d-divorzju hazin. jien ghaddejt minn l-istess cirkostanzi u ommi kienet romlot kmieni u qatt ma reget izzewget. imma illum nghid kemm kont egoist. bid-devorzju jew le xorta hawn hafna pogguti inkluz dan il-kaz. mhux sewwa perezempju min izzewweg u infired bla tfal snin ilu u issa qieghed poggut u ghandu t-tfal tghid lilu u lit-tfal tieghu li ma jistax jerga jizzewweg. jekk zwieg miet miet u wiehed irid jifhem dan u ma jkunx egoist jirraguna tajjeb jien tajjeb kullhadd.
Olina Tretyak
Jul 31st 2010, 09:58
@Maria Zammit, there are only Malta and Philipines, two countries with strong moral values. The rest of the world consists from spineless individuals with no values except selfishness and shortsightedness, right?
Why do not you walk into Vice Squad HQ and ask them how many child abuse cases they have from own families of children, where kids live with native relatives? How many girls get pregnant from their fathers or grandfathers, how many boys are being molested out of "love in every sense" by their controlling possessive relatives, treating children as their property because "family is unbreakable"?
mary Pace
Jul 31st 2010, 11:18
@Maria Zammit
I donot agree with you, because my friend have a daughter which her husband use to beat her balck & blue, & he use to leave her without money ,so he can gamble , After 10 long years she left him with 2 kids, now she find a partner who WORSHIP & love her very much & he look after her & her kids, So please don't you think ,that her second chance ,is alot better then her marriage?? Do you think that ''GOD'' will punish her, for having a good & healthy life for her & her kids with her partner??? she wishes she can get married, but if the church won't allow her, then it it's out of her hands!
Ramon Casha
Jul 31st 2010, 13:03
And what if it had been the woman's husband who committed this act? Would you still be saying that marriage is forever no matter what?
Tim Ripard
Jul 31st 2010, 13:36
Ms Zammit, this 'thing' happened in a country where there is NO divorce, proving quite clearly that whether there is divorce or not is totally irrelevant. Rape, indecent assault and defilement will, unfortunately, be part of life totally regardless of whether there's divorce or not. Try and think logically if that's possible.
s.koludrovic
Jul 30th 2010, 21:54
Good for the woman that reported him. Piety it wasn,t a longer sentence.