Interpol leads Malta police to photographer luring underage girls to lewd photo shoots

A Zebbug photographer today pleaded not guilty to charges of having sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl after having used Facebook to lure her to a photo shoot .

36-year-old Michael Kingswell was remanded in custody.

Police inspector Jsoeph Busuttil said Interpol had informed the police in Malta that a local IP (internet) address was being used to download pornagraphic photos of children from a well-known website. The police identified Kingswell after tracing the IP address.

Further police investigations revealed that Kingswell, a photographer, had used the social media platform Facebook to contact minors over the age of 14 and offered them lewd photo sessions.

While testifying in court, Busuttil said that Kingswell used to send the girls he targeted photos of nude teens performing lewd acts and offer to take similar photos of them. If any of the girls turned him down, he would then offer them a ‘normal’ photo shoot.

Police investigations also revealed that Kingswell had also offered a glass of wine to some of the girls during their photo sessions.

They charged the photographer with engaging in sexual acts with one of the young victims.

Duty magistrate Aaron Bugeja remanded Kingswell in custody after the man’s lawyer, Arthur Azzopardi, did not ask for bail.

Busuttil said that information obtained from the girls interviewed during the investigation into Kingswell’s activities had led them to another photographer, who also used Facebook to approach young girls who had posted sexually suggestive pictures of themselves.

Roberto Rizzo, 37, from Marsascala, was also arraigned today and charged with having - on 23 March in the preceding months and years - lured underage girls to indecent photo shoots, some of which were actually allegedly carried out.

Rizzo is a civil servant and works as a part-time photographer. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyer, Roberto Montalto, insisted that the use of the word “victims” was questionable since the photo shoots were consensual and his client had admitted taking them.

The court denied the defence’s request for bail and remanded Rizzo in custody, after the police said they feared Rizzo might try to influence the girls who were expected to testify.