A father who abused his five-year-old adoptive daughter unsuccessfully tried to discredit the girl’s testimony and a judge yesterday confirmed the four-and-a-half-year jail term imposed on him.

The man, who is not being named to protect the child, had, according to the original judgment, also subjected her to aggressive physical abuse. However, this did not feature in the charges pressed against him, then Magistrate (now judge) Jacqueline Padovani had said. She had noted that, despite the evidence against him, for some reason the charges did not reflect the extent of the abuse.

The case goes back to July 2009 when the man touched the girl intimately.

Her mother painted a picture of terrible abuse, recounting how the victim used to be made to stand on one leg for 15 minutes at a time in a corner and even punched in the face.

In the appeal, the man attacked the victim’s credibility, saying that a video recording of the girl admitting she was lying about the abuse was not accepted as evidence because it could not be verified.

Furthermore, paediatrician Mariella Mangion denied that the girl had been abused. He added that the girl had a system of conduct whereby she would make allegations and then immediately retract them.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia noted that according to Lord Chief Justice Widgery the appeals judge did not have the luxury of being able to listen to the witness.

“Assuming there was no specific error in the conduct of the trial, an appeals court will be very reluctant to interfere with the jury’s verdict (in this case with the conclusions of the learned magistrate) because the jury will have had the advantage of seeing and hearing the witness, whereas the appeal court normally determines the appeal on the basis of papers alone.”

He added that after conducting a profound appreciation of the evidence, the magistrate could have “reasonably and legally” reached the conclusion that she had arrived to.