Father and his brother cleared of charges of sexually abusing daughter

The father of a young girl and his brother were cleared of charges of having sexually abused her, after a court held that the allegations were a narrative which the girl had been made to tell by the father’s estranged partner.

The girl’s mother had told the court how in 2007, the girl – who was not yet 12 years old at the time – stopped eating properly, started to suffer night terrors and began performing “pelvic thrusts” on her dolls. She said she was concerned and had taken her daughter to two psychologists, a priest and Appoġġ, calling the police after she was informed that abuse “was a possibility” by one psychologist.

However, she said, the police had informed her that they were powerless to intervene, as there was no proof.

The girl herself had given evidence during court proceedings, via video-conferencing, telling the court how her uncle had forced her to perform oral sex on him during a visit to her paternal grandparent’s house. He would also take her to his room and lock the door, she said, making her perform similar acts and watch pornography with him.

The two men had denied the story in its entirety, the father adding that he had a very good relationship with his daughter, whom he would visit, under supervision.

He claimed that during the period where he had been living with his wife, she had copied a diskette containing pornographic material onto his computer “to put him in a bad light with the Police.”

After the girl’s testimony was read out to him, he pointed out that she could not have walked in on him and his brother while watching X-rated films, had been alleged, because the door of the room in question was made of transparent glass and the door had no lock. He would never use such material in his daughter’s presence, he said, alleging that the real motive for his wife taking their daughter to psychologists was to cut him off from her.

The father’s new partner corroborated his version of events, in which he claimed that the child had come across indecent images on the internet after miss-spelling “horse” as “whores” – a fact which earned her a stern telling-off from her dad.

On the request of his defence team, two psychologists had been appointed by the court to compile a psychological evaluation of the uncle. The profile which emerged, according to the report, was not one of a person who would engage in paedophilia.

In her judgment acquitting the accused, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli noted that the mother had been shown to have placed the child under undue pressure by taking her to various psychologists, priests and social workers, forcing her to explain her behaviour. In the opinion of the court, the fact that the minor’s account of the events was made while her parents were fighting a custody battle over her had also caused the girl to be under considerable pressure.

In addition to this, gaps and inconsistencies between the girl’s testimony and the account which she had given to social workers and psychologists made the court question the veracity of her claims and suspect that she was simply parroting a narrative given to her by third parties.

While it was possible that the child has been momentarily and accidentally exposed to hardcore pornography which was being viewed by the child’s father and uncle, said the court, this fact did not constitute the crime as charged.

The magistrate explained that one of the most basic principles of criminal law is that a conviction requires guilt to be proven beyond reasonable doubt – a factor which the court felt to be missing in this case.

The names and identifying characteristics of all parties involved were withheld by order of the court.