A 65-year-old man was on Tuesday jailed for 25 years after he was found guilty of repeatedly raping his two young nieces.

The man, whose name cannot be published by court order to protect the identity of his victims, raped his brother’s young daughters when they were three and five years old.

The abuse spanned several years, and it was only when the five-year-old victim turned 18 recently that she exposed the abuse to the police.

Police Inspector Joseph Busuttil, prosecuting, told the court how the man was often trusted to take care of the two young sisters by their unsuspecting parents.

It was 10 years after the abuse stopped that the eldest girl found the courage to go to the police.

Starting when they were three and five years old

The man, also found in possession of child pornography on his computer, was found guilty of defiling the two girls, as well as defiling their younger sister in more recent years.

It is believed that this later abuse spurred the elder girl to protect her youngest sister from her predator uncle.

Before Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, the man pleaded guilty to all the charges brought against him: repeatedly raping the two girls in Ħamrun, Marsa, Santa Venera and several other localities around Malta, participating in sexual activities with the minors, defiling them and their younger sister, forcing at least one of them to watch pornography and the possession and distribution of child pornography.

At first the man denied the charges but then had a change of heart and changed his plea before the Magistrates’ Court. The case went before the Superior Court, where the man confirmed his guilty plea. 

The court upheld the man’s request for a pre-sentencing report, in which a senior forensic psychologist recommended an effective prison term, as well as treatment for his psychological problems to reduce the possibility he might commit future sexual offences.

In sentencing the man to 25 years in prison, Mr Justice Mizzi ordered that his name be included on the sexual offenders register.