A 35-year-old man is this morning standing trial for the alleged rape of his eight-year-old daughter eight years ago.

The man is also charged with defiling the three-year-old daughter of a woman he had sex with. Investigators found that the man secretly filmed himself having sex with the woman at her house while, at the same time, lifting the three-year-old.

The trial by jury started this morning before Mr Justice Michael Mallia and is being heard behind closed doors to protect the victims. The judge also ordered a ban on the identity of the man, for the same reason.

The accused, represented by lawyer Joe Brincat, is pleading not guilty to committing the crimes on and before October 2006.

In the bill of indictment the prosecution - led by lawyers Philip Galea Farrugia and Nadia Camilleri - is claiming that in October 2006 the eight-year-old girl's mother filed a police report claiming that the girl's father was sexually abusing the child.

The girl told police and social workers that her father pressed his private parts against hers and she then felt a burning sensation. She asked him to stop because it hurt.

As police carried out searches at the man's home they seized a mobile phone on which they found video recordings. One of the recordings, filmed in August 2006, showed the man having sex with a woman. During intercourse the man was lifting up the woman's three-year-old daughter. The man told police the woman was not aware she was being filmed.