The tragic story of a 16-year-old daughter abandoned by her mother and forced into prostitution by her 19-year-old boyfriend emerged in court where he was jailed for three years.

She heard he had forcibly shaved the head of a woman working for him when she refused to cooperate

Tristan Falzon, 30, from Qormi, a drug addict doing a rehabilitation programme, whose nickname is The Fox, forced the girl into prostitution on and before August 2006, with the girl accepting because she feared him.

The girl, now 23, told the court she had been abandoned by her mother, who left for the UK, when she was 14 and dating Mr Falzon. They split up just after a short spell together.

She admitted that she had sexual experiences with other men even before dating Mr Falzon.

At the age of 16, she met him again and he used to take her to Marsa to prostitute herself. She obliged because she feared him, adding that, on her first night, she slept with nine men making €23 a time, which went straight to Mr Falzon to fuel his drug habit.

The girl said she had heard that Mr Falzon had forcibly shaved the head of a woman working for him when she refused to cooperate.

She recounted in court that, in the two years before she started seeing Mr Falzon again, she moved from one boyfriend to another with most of them some 10 years older than her. In one of the relationships, she and her boyfriend behaved like a married couple, she noted.

She said that she spent time living at the YMCA shelter in Valletta and at Dar Spinelli, which she described as being like a “prison” given the strict conditions. Thus, she ended up living with another man, Dylan, known as the Indian.

Mr Falzon denied ever forcing her into prostitution, branding her a liar who had even said that her mother had been murdered.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli noted that the girl had a tumultuous life so far and had various sexual experiences before meeting Mr Falzon.

Although he was charged with defiling her, the evidence proved that she was well versed when it came to sexual matters and what went on between them could not be considered by law to be defilement.

The magistrate found him guilty of forcing her into prostitution and jailed him after taking into consideration the seriousness of the crime and the fact that he was a reforming drug addict.

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