A 73-year old man convicted of possession and circulation of child pornography in May last year, has had his five-year jail term confirmed on appeal.

Anthony Pandolfino was jailed and fined €3,000 after three terabytes of indecent material and child pornography were found on his hard drive. He had appealed his five-year sentence, citing his age as the primary ground.

READ: Interpol tip-off sends Maltese paedophile to jail

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

Mr Pandolfino had landed a 10-year jail term in a separate case in 2006 for raping, together with his brother, two boys aged 10 and 11.

In his appeal application, defence lawyer Roberto Montalto, had argued that there were procedural defects underlying the man’s conviction and moreover, the punishment meted out did not take into account his advanced age.

In respect of the first argument, the court of appeal observed that in cases before the magistrates' court, when a guilty plea was registered, before the Attorney General was consulted on whether the accused was to undergo summary proceedings or not, the court may proceed to judgment if the punishment was not higher than 12 years imprisonment.

As for the main argument that the court had not taken into account the accused’s early guilty plea, his age and state of health, the court of appeal observed that an early admission did not automatically translate into a mitigation of punishment.

However, the first court had indeed taken into account the accused’s age and had in fact not applied a maximum punishment, Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti declared, confirming the judgment since there was no reason to disturb the discretion exercised by the Magistrates’ Court.

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