Updated: Mother urges court to tell daughter's lover to move on

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A Turkish man was jailed for two years suspended for four after he admitted in court today to having had sexual relations with a 16-year-old Maltese girl and to having threatened and harassing her.

Umit Kartal 32, who is resident in St Paul's Bay, admitted he had sent the threatening messages on SMS after the relationship had ended.

The victim's mother told the court that she filed a police report after she saw a number of text messages on her daughter's mobile phone. In the messages, the accused told the girl that he was going to follow her everywhere while also threatening her family.

When she saw the messages, the woman said she told her daughter to phone Mr Kartal as she wanted to speak to him. She told him that she wanted him to stop all forms of communication with her daughter and warned him that she would otherwise call the police.

He stopped texting her, but on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, the daughter received messages, which she ignored. On New Year's Day, however, he sent a message to the daughter threatening that he would continue to follow her. More recently she received a phone call from him made from an unknown number.

The woman told the court that she did not wish to see a prison sentence imposed on the accused, but she wanted the accused to go on with his own life and to leave her family in peace.

The court also ordered Mr Kartal not to approach the area where the family lives, including the daughter's school, for six months and not to approach or make any contact with the family in any way for three years.