A 51-YEAR-OLD Lanrnaca lawyer has been charged with inciting a witness to commit perjury and intervening with justice during the trial of man who sexually abused his two daughters.
The lawyer was defending a 47-year-old man who was ultimately found guilty and jailed for 20 years on charges including rape, incest, indecent assault and sexual exploitation.
The lawyer was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit a misdemeanour, forging evidence, inciting witnesses to commit perjury, conspiracy to overturn the course of justice, intervening in a judicial process and concealing profits from illegal acts.
Reports said he had tried to convince the two daughters not to testify against their father by signing affidavits that they had no complaint.
One of the daughters was apparently convinced and never testified in court.
Police caught wind of what was happening and arrested the man after securing the testimony of one of the daughters who claimed she had been pressured to sign the document.
The lawyer was released pending trial.
In its ruling, the Court underlined the charges in relation to the convicted paedophile’s oldest daughter, who was the main witness in the case.
The young girl was brutally raped and sodomised by her father five times over a period of eight years, starting from when she was just 11.
But the actual sexual abuse began a year earlier, when she suffered a number of indecent assaults.
The 47-year-old was only charged with indecently assaulting his youngest daughter, who refused to stand in the witness box.
However, the court took into consideration that the abuse had started when the girl was just 10 years old, in addition to the fact that she was the convict’s own daughter.
It was also heard in court that his oldest daughter, when aged 17 years old, was seriously sexually assaulted by her father when she asked to go out with her boyfriend.
The atrocities were deemed by the court as “extremely humiliating” for the victims, and would have a serious effect on their future personalities.
The court said what they had heard during the trial was some of the “worst of its kind”. It found absolutely no mitigating circumstances, it said.
The court condemned the father for turning himself into “his own children’s worst nightmare” instead of being a pillar of support and role model.
The two teenage daughters, it was said in court, were showing symptoms of complete emotional and psychological breakdown, and are living in isolation and fear of never leading a normal life.
Even though the court couldn’t substantiate more serious charges for the youngest daughter, it decided to proceed with the severe sentence, it said.
