A 47-year-old man has been jailed for five years after being found guilty of corrupting and engaging in sexual activities with the 14-year-old daughter of his partner.

The man, who cannot be named by court order, was also found guilty of possessing indecent footage of the girl.

The case dates to September 2012 when a woman and her 14-year-old daughter, as well as the two children of the accused, filed a police report and handed the police footage depicting the minor performing oral sex on the accused.

The footage, which was filmed with a mobile phone, depicted the lower part of the man’s body and the girl’s face. The girl identified the man to be the accused and said that the sex act had been performed seven times between January and September 2012 at his Msida apartment.

The next day, the mother informed the police that her daughter was saying that the man in the footage was not the accused.

But the girl then asked to speak to a policeman without her mother being present, explaining that her mother had been the accused’s partner for five years and confirmed that he was the man in the footage.

She said that he would film the act, adding that everything was carried out with her full consent.

Her mother had stumbled across the mobile phone and discovered the footage, resulting in an argument with her partner. However, she and her partner had later made up and they returned to live with him.

Asked why she had said that the man in the footage was not him, the girl replied that she did not want the accused to end up in prison and that she did not want to be selfish since she herself had also wished to engage in sexual activities with him.

She also said that she had had previous sexual experiences with a 17-year-old youth and a boy her age.

The girl also testified that she and her mother were forced to file the police report by the accused’s daughter, who wished to get back at her father after quarrelling with him. She had left his residence and went to live with her sister, but wished to seize his apartment so that she could live in it, the girl told the court.

The accused’s daughter had also threatened the mother that if she failed to report the accused’s actions to the police, she would report the mother so that her children would be taken away from her and placed in an institution, the 14-year-old girl said.

The accused denied the charges, explaining that throughout his five-year relationship with the mother, he often argued with her because the girl was quite wilful.

The defence had attacked the girl’s credibility, pointing out that she had changed her version of events numerous times.

The fact that the act was consensual did not blot out the fact that the accused had exploited the girl and caused her to believe that it was normal for a girl to perform such acts with her mother’s partner and a man much older than she- Court

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli held that the girl was truthful when testifying before the court and that it was evident that she had lied before to protect the accused and that she and her mother were afraid of the threats made by the accused’s daughters, who wished to get back at their father.

The fact that the act was consensual did not blot out the fact that the accused had exploited the girl and caused her to believe that it was normal for a girl to perform such acts with her mother’s partner and a man much older than she. 

The court therefore jailed him for five years, issued a protection order for two years in favour of the mother and her 14-year-old girl and ordered him to pay the court expenses.