Man sentenced to four years in prison for raping his four-year-old granddaughter

A Marsaxlokk man has been sentenced to four years in prison and placed on the sex offenders’ register after a court found him guilty of raping his four-year-old granddaughter.

The man was found guilty of violent sexual assault, engaging in sexual acts with a minor and seducing the girl who had been entrusted to his care.

The abuse occurred over several months in 2019 and only came to light much later during a family holiday in Sicily, when the girl told her father what her paternal grandfather had done to her when she was between four and five years old.

The girl stated that there were about ten incidents, all in her grandfather’s house. The disturbing encounters described in detail in the judgment are not suitable for publication.

The defendant, who was not named in the verdict, denied abusing his granddaughter but claimed that she once came into his room while he was showering and touched his genitals. He admitted touching the girl’s genitals but insisted he only did so “to see her laugh”.

The child’s mother testified in court that she was so disgusted by her daughter’s story that she left the room in tears and, after calming down, called Appogg. In hindsight, she realized that this explained why the defendant had bought the girl so many sweets and allowed her to drink a few sips of wine.

The child herself suffered from night terrors and lost interest in school overnight. She was often found crying in the headmistress’s office.

In her extensively researched judgment, Judge Claire Stafrace Zammit found that the defendant’s explanation had evolved over the course of his three statements to police and his evidence in court, leading the court to reject it entirely. When asked about the alleged shower incident, the child said that no such incident had taken place, confirming the court’s impression that the defendant had fabricated it.

None of the defense witnesses contradicted the girl’s testimony, the court found. “Instead, we saw a blatant attempt to discredit the minor, which resulted in contradictory testimony and further convinced the court that the child’s testimony was true.”

Judge Stafrace Zammit found the man guilty on all charges and sentenced him to four years in prison and a one-year treatment order. She also ordered that his name be placed on the sex offenders’ register.