Maltese Child Abuser Who Was Caught By Interpol Confirmed To Have Also Circulated Underage Pornography
An elderly Maltese convicted child rapist has had his conviction of possession and circulation of child pornography confirmed on appeal on Tuesday.
73-year-old Anthony Pandolfino will have to serve his five-year jail sentence given back in May. This sentence is separate to the 10-year jail term he and his brother Denis Pandolfino received in 2006 for raping another two brothers aged 10 and 11.
Pandolfino was caught with at least three terabytes of child pornography and other indecent material on his hard drive after a tip-off from Interpol, the international police agency, alerted authorities to his actions and whereabouts – Interpol had obtained his IP address, and were able to track him using it. He was caught both uploading and downloading child porn.
He was also fined €3,000 for being in possession of child porn. He had recently attempted to appeal the sentence, using his advanced age as a reason for his sentence to be lessened, but was refused by the courts.
Pandolfino’s defence lawyer, Roberto Montalto, attempted to point out procedural flaws in his client’s trial and conviction, and also pointed to his age.
In response to this, the court pointed out that it had taken his age into account, which is why he wasn’t given the maximum punishment. As such, Justice Giovanni Grixti found no grounds in Pandolfino’s argument, and rejected the appeal.
The 2006 case of the Pandolfino brothers’ rape had shocked the nation
A police inspector who testified in the court case said that the 10-year-old brother would often draw pictures of police cars, believing that the police would one day save him and his brother from being raped by the adult brothers.
Daphne Caruana Galizia had also commented on the brothers, lamenting the weak sentence that they were handed: “Denis and Anthony Pandolfino, who each made a habit of sodomising the young brothers entrusted to their care by their wayward mother and filming the proceedings, get just 10 years each.”
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