A 68-year-old man has been jailed for nine years after he was found guilty of tying an seven-year-old girl to a bed and raping her in 2002. 

William Gatt was handed the maximum punishment by Magistrate Audrey Demicoli who heard how in 2010 the police received communication from Interpol after the British police received a report regarding abuse suffered by the minor while she lived in St Paul's Bay in 2002. 

The girl spilled the beans on the abuse when she was 13 years old and had told the story to her school counsellor after she had tried to harm herself while at school. 

She told the counsellor that her family used to live in Malta when she had been around 7 or 8 years old. She would often play games in the street with her friends, and a man who lived nearby would invite her into his home to play with his cat. She said she had gone there on several occasions.

The girl claimed that the last time she had gone there, the man took her to his bedroom, tied her up and raped her. 

During his interrogation, Mr Gatt had admitted that the girl had gone to his house to see his pets but denied sexually abusing her. He had also told the police that he enjoyed performing sexual acts on and in the presence of little girls, linking this to an alcohol problem he had some six years prior.

Testifying via video conferencing, the girl told the court how she had not told anyone about her abuse but often suffered depression because of the trauma.

She told the magistrate that on the day he had taken her to his bedroom and told her to wait there until he went to get the pets. But when he returned five minutes later, he tied her arms and leg to the bed with a rope and raped her. 

While the abuse was taking place, Mr Gatt had threatened to kill members of her family if she told anyone anything about what was happening. 

Mr Gatt testified that he had never touched the girl. He told the court that the girl played with the pets in the living room but one day caught her rummaging through his drawers in the bedroom and chucked her out. 

He claimed that the girl was lying, saying the allegations were instigated by her father who he had refused to lend €4,600. 

But when confronted that he had not mentioned this during the interrogation, Mr Gatt said the police had not given the opportunity to say it. He also clarified that when he told police that he "liked girls", he was referring to adults and not minors. 

He also denied ever stating that he enjoyed performing sex acts on young girls and boys.

As she found Mr Gatt guilty of the charges brought against him, Magistrate Demicoli noted how the girl's behaviour and body language while she was testifying indicated that she was saying the truth and was evidently still traumatised. 

The magistrate said she could imagine no reason why the girl would come up with such a story unless she really experienced it.

The court therefore found Mr Gatt guilty and imposed the maximum sentence of nine years in jail. 

Police inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted.