Band Club Conductor Gets 4-Year Prison Sentence After Defiling 13-Year-Old Student
A band club music teacher and conductor who defiled a 13-year-old student in 2012 has just had his five-year prison sentence reduced by one year on appeal, 11 years after the incident.
The ex-Armed Forces of Malta and bandman, identified as Mario Testa, will serve a four-year-prison sentence for defiling the 13-year-old girl who had been “entrusted to his care”, given that she was a music student of his.
The then 41-year-old Testa, a husband and father of two children, was given a five-year effective jail term by the Court of Magistrates in 2015. The defence appealed the decision on various grounds.
Despite the fact that the parties’ final submissions were made in 2016, it took a total of seven years for the appeal to finally be heard, after being re-assigned to a new judge in 2023.
Eleven years after the defilement of the 13-year-old girl, the perpetrator was handed a reduced prison sentence of four years.
Mr Justice Neville Camilleri was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Testa did indeed have sex with his then 13-year-old student, who attended lessons at the band club for around three years.
“A mature person must be careful not to overstep the limits because the aim of the law is to protect minors,” exclaimed Camilleri, “especially when the girl was entrusted to his care”.
From the sittings, it transpired that the parents of the girl, who was merely in her early teens, had noticed a shift in her behaviour and had thus sought professional help. It was during this time that MSN messages emerged, wherein Testa was exposing the minor to pornographic imagery and had been asking her for sexual favours over webcam.
The communication led to an escalation of events, with Testa taking the 13-year-old to his father’s apartment where they engaged in sexual intercourse. The girl then shared with Testa that this was her first time, telling the 41-year-old that she wanted to learn more.
The defendant insisted that it was the minor who initiated the sexual relations since she had begged him on several occasions to go out with her.
On appeal, the defence counsel brought forth witnesses who testified to Testa’s upstanding character, while also saying that the teenager’s “tight fitting and low cut clothes” were ill-suited for the band club whose patrons are mostly men.
The defence insisted the accused’s sentence was excessive, a sentiment substantiated by his psychologist and probation officer since they both testified that the accused posed no threat to society.
Back in 2015, when the case was in its early stages, the minor’s parents told the Times of Malta “We almost lost our daughter because of him. She tried to end her life several times. Our message to parents is to stand by your daughters – or sons – in such cases and don’t take it against them. Had we done that, we could have lost her”.
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