Court hands harsher four-year prison term to rapist

A 63-year-old man was handed a four-year jail term after the court of appeal overturned a 15-month jail term from the Court of Magistrates.

The man had been acquitted of raping a disabled 18-year-old in 2007, but found guilty of attempted rape and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment. The court had acquitted him of rape because full penetration had not occurred, when medical experts said that the girl's hymen was still intact.

The crime, which took place on 27 February 2007, happened when the accused was alone with the girl in her mother's house, and admitted to having dragged her by the arm upstairs to have sexual intercourse. "She did not resist because she was scared of me," the man was said to have told the police.

Both the accused and the Attorney General appealed the 15-month sentence.

The Attorney General submitted that full penetration was not required for rape to take place, saying that rape was committed as soon as penetration starts.

On his part, the accused - whose name cannot be published by court order to protect the identity of his victim - claimed his punishment had been excessive, saying that he had health problems and also suffered from claustrophobia.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia stated that the victim, whose mother was the accused's partner, suffered from mild mental retardation.

He held that the accused's medical claims had not been supported by medical certificates. "Even so, claustrophobia is no reason for not delivering a jail sentence."

The Court of Appeal upheld the request of the Attorney General and discarded that of the accused, taking the 15-month jail term up to four years.