A judge yesterday called for a time limit in criminal cases after he delivered judgment on a defilement case that took about 12 years before reaching him in the form of an appeal.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said he could not help but note that a criminal case that did not involve any complex issues had dragged on for too long.

The magistrate had at times put off the case and the prosecuting officer could not appear on the date suggested, but it had been mainly the defence that had dragged its feet in producing evidence, the judge said.

He made his recommendation at the very beginning of an appeal judgment in the case of a 57-year-old man who was jailed for four years after he defiled three young girls in 1997.

"Although this court understands and appreciates that, given a huge increase in its competence over the last few years, the Magistrates' Court was inundated with work and was under great pressure, this delay... is changing the very nature of the criminal process, which, by its very nature, has to be concluded as soon as possible in the interest of the accused and society, on behalf of which the prosecution is working.

"This situation, which does not only concern this case, is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by means of legislative measures ensuring that such cases are decided within a reasonable time, which is mandatory and established at law," Mr Justice Galea Debono said.

The case revolved around a sensitive case of defilement that was first brought to light when two of the victims, sisters aged four and seven at the time, started behaving strangely.

The parents noticed that the four-year old was washing her hands constantly. When her mother asked her why she was doing this, she said it was because Twanny, as she knew him, had asked her to touch his genitals.

The accused used to work as a beach attendant and knew the young girls at the beach. He also had a relationship with the girls' aunt.

The seven-year-old also had behavioural problems and at one point it was even suspected that she could have been dyslexic.

The parents took the sisters to a psychologist and the girls gave a detailed description of what had happened to them.

A third girl, their six-year-old cousin, confirmed their account.

It resulted that, among other things, he touched them and masturbated in their presence.

When the police spoke to him, he claimed that once he was urinating in a cup in a small room on the beach and one of the girls walked in on him but she left immediately. He denied having ever touched them. He said he used to work for the girls' parents and they wanted him out but he refused so they concocted the whole story and made the girls say what they did.

Mr Justice Galea Debono found no reason to change the original judgment, whereby he had been jailed for four years.