A couple who filmed their eight-year-old daughter as they slapped her and threatened her with a wooden spoon have been cleared by an appeals court of using fear of violence against the child.

The mother and her partner, who are not being named to protect the identity of the child, had been conditionally discharged for a year in November last year after being found guilty of the crime.

The case first came to light when the social agency Appoġġ contacted the police about alleged psychological abuse, which was filmed by the couple and kept on a computer.

Saying the film was made about two years ago, the mother testified that she never hit the child with a wooden spoon but had used it in the past when her daughter played up.

Whenever she was naughty and started to cry, they would film her because the girl hated that and would stop crying.

When the girl refused her food, the mother would hit the table hard in an effort to get her to eat and show her the wooden spoon because she was afraid of it.

She added that she would never abuse her daughter and anyway it did not make sense to abuse her and put it on video.

In the film that captured most attention, which lasts about 16 minutes, the girl is seen eating very slowly, at times laughing and at others crying, Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano said.

At one point she throws a teaspoon back at her mother’s partner, who is filming her, and he encourages her to continue eating.

The girl disappears under the table and the sound of a wooden spoon is heard tapping on the table.

The man is then seen trying to balance the spoon on the table.

Her mother slaps the girl and laughs while the girl looks a little disturbed. Her partner hits the girl with a spoon but two minutes later she is laughing again.

The woman pulls the girl’s hair and this is followed by what the judge described as a series of “mini slaps”.

When she testified, the girl said she loved her mother and her partner and was never scared of them. She felt safe at home, she said.

In his considerations, the judge said that while he condemned any form of violence against children, according to law the couple could not be found guilty of using fear of violence against the child.

The girl was not petrified but would be annoyed that she was being filmed and throughout the clips was seen laughing.

Mr Justice Quintano said he was not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that psychological violence had been committed against the child.

Lawyers Jose Herrera and Veronique Dalli appeared for the couple.