10-year jail term confirmed for unrepentant 74-year-old paedophile

A 74-year old paedophile who appeared to show no genuine remorse for the abuse of a 14-year-old boy entrusted into his care had his 10-year jail term confirmed on appeal. Michael Charles Muscat, who appeared not to have learnt his lesson, following an earlier six-year jail term over similar wrongdoing, had appealed the judgment handed down by a Magistrates’ Court in October 2018, claiming that it was excessive. The man had been accused of defiling the minor, engaging in sexual acts with him and producing indecent drawings of the boy, thereby, according to the first court presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, “irreparably corrupting the innocence of the child leaving him scarred for life". At the appeal stage, his lawyer cited similar cases before the Maltese courts which had resulted in a lower punishment for the offender.  A pre-sentencing report, also requested by the man’s lawyer, eventually resulted in a recommendation by the probation officer to the effect that it would be in the best interests of the appellant and society at large, for the man to be kept within a “restricted environment under close psychological supervision”. The officer reported that...