A man was today found not guilty of having sexually molested two children after a court found that he was framed by their mother after he rejected her sexual advances.

Martin Vassallo, 35 of Senglea had been accused of having illegally arrested two children aged under 12, defiled them and offended public morals.

The court heard that the accused used to work as a farm hand.

The court said that the proceedings had shown that the mother of the children - who was the wife of the farmer who employed the accused - was 'obsessed with herself' and had a huge sense of self-importance and of her attractiveness to men.

Her testimony showed pathetic fantasies and a sexual obsession on the accused, to the extent that when he rejected her sexual advances and quit his job, she feared that the true reason for his departure would be disclosed to her husband, thus harming her marriage.

She had therefore 'poisoned the memory' of her children by distorting the friendship which had existed.

The two children were also 'primed' on how to testify as shown by the words they had used in their testimony.

Furthermore, the court said, the incident where the accused allegedly molested the children, as described, was technically impossible.

With regard to vulgar SMSs which the witness said she received form the accused, it resulted that that there were no messages in her phone inbox but in her outbox.

The former girlfriend of the accused had given accurate testimony of how the woman used to try to flirt with the accused through words and actions.

The court therefore found the Mr Vassallo not guilty.

(The mother's name is not being published to protect the children).