The aunt of a girl whose evidence had led to her father being jailed for abusing her had offered the girl Lm5 to recant her testimony, a court heard today.

Inspector Louise Calleja was testifying before the Constitutional Court in the father’s case against her.

The man, Emanuel Camilleri, was temporarily released from jail because the girl, now 20, was allegedly pressured by her mother to falsely testify that he had sexually abused her.

Mr Camilleri had been charged in 2004 with corruption of minors and was convicted and jailed.

He was provisionally released, after spending nearly 400 days in jail, by order of the Constitutional Court pending the outcome of a case against his daughter and his former wife. Mr Camilleri always maintained he was innocent.

He is currently suing Inspector Calleja, who prosecuted in his case.

In her testimony today, Insp. Calleja said that the girl’s aunt, Sandra Carabott, had offered the girl money to change her version and say it was not true.

Even the girl’s brother Luke, who has since died, had said he had seen Ms Carabott offer his sister Lm5 to recant her testimony, Insp. Calleja said.

She said that the girl had testified at the Magistrates' Court five times and her version remained consistent.

The court today also continued to hear the compilation of evidence against Lisa May Camilleri, who is accused of perjury.

The woman was charged after the daughter told the police she was fed up of covering up for her mother and that her father had never laid a finger on her.

Mr Camilleri was among those testifying.

He recalled that he went to speak to his lawyer Tonio Azzopardi about visitation rights in November 2002.

He told his lawyer he was not paying child maintenance and that the visits had stopped.

He said he was later told he could not see his children because he sexually abused them.

Mr Camilleri told the court he filed a criminal complaint and after paying maintenance, began seeing the children again in October 2003. He recalled that his daughter used to not want to leave the car because she was afraid she would not see him again.

He said that when his former wife was notified of his complaint, she refused the maintenance payments and filed a police report. He said he gave the police a statement in February 2004, denying all her allegations.

The case started to be heard in court in September that year. During the hearing, it was alleged that he raped his daughter five times but a gynaecological examination established she was still a virgin. However, she testified in court that he had raped her and gave details of what allegedly happened.

Mr Camilleri said his daughter was asked if she knew what was rape was and she said she did because it happened to her.

Alan Thorn, who used to date the accused, told the court that the daughter told him some four years ago that her father had never touched her and that she had been made to say he did by her mother.

He said that, at the time, he had been unaware that the former husband of the woman he was dating was undergoing criminal proceedings.

Also giving evidence was TV presenter Peppi Azzopardi who said Mr Camilleri had wanted to take a lie detector test on television to prove that he had not abused his daughter.

The case continues on Tuesday when the mother is expected to request bail.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.