Birzebbugia woman jailed for selling 15-year-old girl into prostitution

The prosecution had not proven the girl had been corrupted by the accused, noting that the girl initially had no complaints about offering sexual services

File photo
File photo

A 34-year-old Maltese woman from Birzebbugia, has been jailed for four years after she was found guilty of having lived off of the earnings of the prostitution of a 15-year-old girl in 2008.

Police had begun investigating Anna Maria Jimenez in June of 2008. Police and Appoġġ had found the girl alone during a search of her home. The girl had told police that the woman would bring men home to have sex with her and would pay Jimenez for it, claiming that this had been going on for around 18 months.

She alleged that Jimenez would punch her and beat her with belts, clothes hangers.

Via video conferencing, the girl had explained how when she was just 14, her mother and Jimenez had been in a one-year relationship. She had decided to go and live with Jimenez when her mother started a relationship with a man. The victim had not spoken to her mother since she turned 15.

Medical tests established that the girl had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. The girl had told the police that she was terrorised by Jimenez, as well as by Jimenez's mother who would tell her that her daughter ended up in jail because of her, the girl “would be in her grave.”

In separate proceedings in September last year, Jimenez was also accused of imprisoning a disabled woman who she claimed to have been caring for, in cramped, squalid conditions for nine years.

Police inspector Josephine Gauci had told magistrate Neville Camilleri that the girl had told officers how she felt herself to be a slave, that Jimenez would take all her earnings and spend them on designer clothes. The court was told how the girl would meet a number of men, some of them foreign, some of them in their 60s, servicing them either at home or in cars.

Officers had seized €1,560 found inside the accused’s wardrobe and €200 hidden in a sofa which the girl used as a bed. Jimenez's ID cards, playing cards, condoms, together with a flick knife and a set of handcuffs were found in the kitchen.

In his decision, magistrate Neville Camilleri held he had no reason to have any doubts about the credibility of the girl’s testimony.

The court noted that the girl’s mother had allowed her daughter to move in with her former partner, fully aware that the woman was involved in prostitution.

However, the prosecution had not proven the girl had been corrupted by the accused, the court held. It noted that the girl initially had no complaints about offering sexual services and had been quite happy about them because she had money to spend. The arrangement went well until the two had a falling-out. Jimenez was declared not guilty of corrupting the minor or of having participated in sexual activities with her.

In handing down a four-year prison sentence, the magistrate took into consideration the fact that the victim, now 22 years old, had expressed a willingness to forgive and reconcile with the accused, but held that a prison sentence was fitting in the circumstances.

In addition to the four-year jail term, Jimenez was also condemned to pay €3,600 in costs and be added to the sex offenders register.