A 53-year-old man was yesterday jailed for five years after defiling his nine-year-old daughter on several occasions, most of the incidents taking place in or near cemeteries.

The man, who has a previous conviction for domestic violence, is not being named to protect his estranged wife, the victim and his son. The most serious of the incidents was when he touched his daughter sexually while she was lying between her parents in the matrimonial bed and the mother was asleep, the court heard. Bizarrely, the other six incidents occurred in or near two cemeteries, three times near Malta’s largest one, the Addolorata in Paola, and on the other occasions inside the one in Guardamangia near the Merlin book shop.

The girl was just nine when the abuse occurred in 2005. He began touching her breasts and telling her how well she was developing, she testified.

On the incident in bed, she said she pretended to be asleep, adding that he would also touch her in his car as well as outside it.

The girl said she loved her father and could not understand why he had to put her through such horrible experiences.

The girl’s mother testified that her daughter had not immediately informed her about the abuse because she was scared of him. After she found out, however, she decided to confront him even though she was scared for her own safety.

He would beat her up, push her to the ground and hit her, she said.

Eventually, she found out that the sexual abuse had also taken place with the couple’s son when he was seven years old.

However, the police were powerless to take action because the case was time barred by law.

Taking the witness stand, the son said he had repeatedly asked his parents to buy him a bicycle but his father always refused.

When he was about seven, his father told him to masturbate in front of him and some two weeks later bought him a bicycle.

He never said anything to avoid trouble but when he found out his father had begun separation proceedings, he told his mother about the incident.

The father denied in court that he had ever defiled his daughter and said he would have committed suicide if he had. He categorically denied the allegations when pushed and said that he thought his daughter had testified the way she did because she had been influenced by her mother.

In her considerations, however, Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani said she found the daughter’s testimony to be credible, especially after she had questioned her intensively and she remained steadfast.

She could not find the father’s denial credible and noticed that he had a violent past in which he would control his family through fear.

Taking into consideration the seriousness of the crime, the magistrate jailed him for five years.

Defence lawyer Edward Gatt appeared for the man while lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared as parte civile.