Friday, 6th November 2009 - 17:42CET
Update 2: Man jailed 10 years for raping 7-year-old niece
(Adds details)
A man who was found guilty of raping his seven-year-old niece has been jailed for 10 years.
A jury found the man guilty of raping the girl, now 18, guilty with six votes to three.
The girl had told the court that she suffers the effects of the rape to this day. She said she was raped five times, mostly at her grandmother's house.
The jury also found the man, who is now 27, guilty of defiling the girl with eight votes to one.
The trial was characterised by tension throughout, with the prosecution and defence counsel at each other's throats, raising objections to the point where Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono had to warn them to keep calm.
Publication of identities was banned by the court to protect the victim's identty.
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Comments
Even murder cases suffer the mis-carriage of justice. Research shows this is more so in rape cases . Lets hope there has not been any mis-carriage of justice in this case.
I don't know what to comment on the sentence really, but I know that he has been found GUILTY, and that simply SCARES me. If you see what I mean !!!
I hope that this man gets all the help he needs, HE NEEDS IT., ........... HE NEEDS IT !!!!!
May God protect this girl for the rest of her life. ...................She is still 18 years old..............
The law must decide whether a 17 year old is a minor or not. As this case amply illustrates 17 year olds are no angels.
Since when a boy becomes a man overnight?! The accused was a 17 year old; that is enough for any normal human being to realise what a rape on a 7 year old means.
At the end, what is important, is that the accused was aware of the wrongdoing he was committing at the time of the crime, and not whether he had reached the magical age of adulthood!
However, I do think that the two points raised by the defense were not given enough consideration.
Obviously the drug importer gets and rightly deserves the longer sentence since he would be doing damage to a whole lot of people and to their families.
All of us must not forget how crazy we were at 17 years and how several years later we condemn our own actions and way of thought. No, I would have never raped a 7 yr old!! ... but there are things that I regret.
It was the trial of a man, for the crime he committed when he was a child. People change a lot in 10 years especially when one transforms from a child to a man/woman.
If this man has changed and never committed another crime since 10years ago, I wouldn't have given such a harsh sentence
So, no discounts !
If there is to be a register it MUST NOT be available to the public as some have suggested. The proposed register should only be available to the police and if an employer wants to know if a prospective employee is on it or not he has to ask the prospective employee to go to the police and obtain the go ahead. This is basically what is already in place when we are asked to obtain a certificate of good conduct from the police before being accepted for a post. the present system only needs a little tweaking.