Judge overturns suspended sentence, jails father of three in child porn case

The Court of Appeal overturned a suspended jail term handed to a 50-year-old man living in Msida, into an effective jail term after Judge Michael Mallia held that the pornographic material found in his possession included images of children under nine years of age.

The man had been previously charged of having in his possession pornographic material showing young children. The incident happened in May 2005.

In July 2012, the accused pleaded guilty to the charges and was handed a two-year suspended jail term. However, he was acquitted on the age-aggravating factor of the crime. The Court of Magistrates decreed that there was no evidence as to the dates of birth that confirmed the children in the images were under nine years of age. The Attorney General appealed the judgement.

In his appeal, the AG held that there was no logical understanding as to how the accused, himself a father of three including a young girl, could meddle in such disgusting and disturbing images of children. Birth certificates of the girls in the images were not the only evidence of the children's age. "If you looks at the images you do not need to be a paediatric expert to conclude the kids are under nine years. An image entitled 'new 5 yo daddy please lick my' shows a girl visibly much younger than nine years," the AG argued.

In its appeal, the Attorney General argued that the protection of childhood and innocence was the right of every child, describing the acts as "sickening".

Mr Justice Michael Mallia upheld the AG's appeal, revoked the suspended sentence and handed the accused an effective jail term of 12 months. Inspector Raymond Aquilina prosecuted.