A teacher was jailed for six years for defiling a teenage student whose parents had trusted in his care.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli found Alexander Giacomotto, 62, of Birkirkara guilty of defiling the boy on various occasions at his Qawra house, in his car and even at school.

Although the defilement took place between 1992 and 1996, the boy only spoke up in 2005 when he met his girlfriend and spilled the beans on the horrible experience. He filed a police report the following year and Mr Giacomotto was charged in 2007.

The couple eventually married and they had two children but the psychological trauma had taken over his life and ruined his marriage, resulting in their separation.

The indecencies began when he was 12 years old and continued until he was 16.

It was December and his teacher asked him to go with him after school to buy some Christmas decorations. He took him to his flat in Qawra where he gave him vodka with orange, showed him a gay pornographic film, removed his pants and asked the boy to perform oral sex on him.

The victim told the court that when it was all over he burst into tears and Mr Giacomotto told him there was nothing to worry about. He also gave him some money and told him not to tell anyone about it.

He said Mr Giacomotto befriended his family and persuaded his parents to start sending their son to him for private lessons.

The victim said the teacher would touch him at school and in the car, where he would tell him to perform indecent acts while he drove.

As he grew up, the boy tried to resist his teacher’s sexual advances but always felt that what was happening was his fault. He said he had been subjected to anal sex “on a regular basis” for four years.

‘Teacher abused position of trust’

The court also heard that Mr Giacomotto gave the boy many presents, including a boat and a computer, as well as free private lessons.

When he confronted his former teacher in 2006 as part of the therapy he was receiving, the victim said Mr Giacomotto had promised to buy him a place to live and had even given him €23,000 as deposit on property. He even asked him to sign a paper renouncing criminal action, which the victim refused to do.

Subsequently, the teacher had asked him to drop the charges he had filed against him and promised to repay him with property within two months.

The court threw out Mr Giacomotto’s legal arguments that the boy’s complaints were time-barred because the 15 years prescribed by law had not passed when considering that the last sexual acts were performed in 1996 and the police report was filed in 2006.

However, the court upheld the legal argument by the defence that the charge involving the boy’s illegal arrest was time-barred.

Magistrate Demicoli said the teacher had abused his position of trust and she did not doubt the veracity of the details given by the victim.

She said the sexual acts and repeated defilement had a “permanent” negative effect on the victim, even now that he had grown into a man, as the experience had even broken his marriage. The magistrate ordered that Mr Giacomotto is placed on the paedophile register. She also issued a three-year protection order covering the victim.