Fifteen men are currently listed on the child offenders’ register, which has grown by four names over the last five months.

In a recent case a magistrate ordered the listing of a 49-year-old man who was jailed for six years for the repeated sexual abuse of his 15-year-old daughter.

The offences took place at his home, in 2001, when the daughter visited her father against her mother’s wishes.

The court banned the publication of the man’s name to protect the identity of his daughter.

The aim of the register is to make the names of people convicted of abuse available to agencies dealing with children, even when the courts have ordered a ban on publication of the name to protect the victims.

The law leaves the listing on the register entirely at the discretion of the court

At the end of April Times of Malta reported that the number of people on the register stood at 11 – including two men convicted of raping their own daughters.

Other people on the list were found guilty of defiling minors, possessing child pornography and violent indecent assault, among other offences.

The register came into force on January 20, 2012, but five months after its creation, there were still no names on it.

Back then, former justice minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici – who spearheaded the law – called on the judiciary to make use of the “very good instrument” available to protect children.

Once listed, a person would not be able to be a member of, work or hold any position within, an organisation involved in the education, care, custody and welfare of minors.

The law is not retroactive, so a person listed on the register would have had to be convicted after it came into force.

The law leaves the listing on the register entirely at the discretion of the court.