Apart from a five-year prison sentence, the court issued a three-year treatment order for Anthony Pandolfino to be treated while he serves his sentence. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

A tip-off from Interpol, which constantly monitors the internet for child porn activity, has led to the arrest and imprisonment of a Maltese paedophile.

The arrest came just two years after the man had been released from jail after serving a 10-year prison sentence for raping two young boys.

Anthony Pandolfino, 75, a sexual predator and one of the first people to make it to the sex offenders’ register, was jailed for five years after he was found in possession of hundreds of thousands of images and videos of child pornography.

The police found in excess of three terabytes of child porn. Investigators also found photographs he had taken himself of children changing in public places, including on beaches.

The Maltese authorities were alerted about the convicted paedophile’s online presence when his IP address was flagged uploading and downloading child pornography.

In 2006, Mr Pandolfino and his brother Dennis were jailed for 10 years for raping two young brothers, defiling them, holding them against their will and being in possession of pornographic material. That case unfolded in 2002.

The boys, aged 10 and 11, were repeatedly raped, defiled and sexually abused over a number of years by the two men, who were meant to be looking after them.

One of the children testified that he was living with Anthony Pandolfino when he was five or six and that the man used to rape him, that these acts lasted about an hour-and-a-half each time and that he continued even though the boy told him he was in pain.

He was jailed for five years after he was found in possession of hundreds of thousands of images and videos of child pornography

He would threaten the boy with death if he told anyone about what had happened.

The boy also testified that Dennis Pandolfino would come to watch and when Anthony Pandolfino left, he would touch himself and order the boy not to tell Anthony Pandolfino about it, as otherwise he would not be allowed to use the Playstation.

Two years after serving his 10-year prison sentence for the rapes of the brothers, Anthony Pandolfino was snapping photographs of children changing at the beach, as well as exchanging child pornography with other people who, he told police, “shared his hobby”. Police Inspector Joseph Busuttil told the court that the accused had a serious psychological problem.

In fact, in addition to a five-year prison sentence, the court issued a three-year treatment order for the accused to receive treatment while he is in jail.