Marsa Man Accused Of Raping 7-Year-Old Cousin Denies All Charges
A 25-year-old Marsa man has denied participating in the corruption of his younger cousin after she accused him of sexually abusing her since she was seven.
The case, which does not feature a jury at the request of the defence, is Madam Justice Scerri Herrera’s first case since becoming a judge.
The alleged sexual abuse came to light after the girl, who is now 14 years old, opened up to school friends in November 2017 about what her cousin was doing to her. The police had been contacted by school officials on the 17th of November 2017, shortly after finding out themselves.
In court, prosecutors said the girl claimed her cousin had abused her for the last seven years on a near weekly basis, finally penetrating her in a single incident when she was 10 years old.
She allegedly told her cousin to stop after he had penetrated her, saying she was feeling “uncomfortable”.
One another occasion, the 25-year-old had tried to initiate a sexual encounter with the girl while she was lying in bed with two even younger twin cousins.
The defence said their client had consistently denied the sexual abuse accusations as well as the rape accusation. He had at first not accepted any legal assistance, but stopped refusing after he discovered that he could be facing anywhere between six and 40 years’ imprisonment if found guilty.
The girl had admitted she had knowingly tempted her older cousin on one occasion, something she was “very sorry” for, a police inspector said
However, while testifying, investigating police inspector Paula Ciantar noted that the rest of her family would not talk about sex in front of the girl, and that she had no carnal knowledge prior to the incidents with her cousin.
Ciantar noted that the girl’s family had not known about the ongoing abuse as she felt too humiliated to open up to her parents about what her cousin was allegedly doing to her.
Prosecutors noted that there was no evidence of physical abuse or forcefulness in making the girl participate in sexual acts.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Anita Giordmaina represented the accused, while Nadia Attard, Matthew Xuereb and Charles Mercieca from the Office of the Attorney General prosecuted.
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