How Could You? Hall of Shame-Malta Adoptive Father

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Malta, an adoptive father “who physically and sexually abused his five-year-old adopted child two years ago was today jailed for four-and-a-half years. The man, who denied all the allegations, also lost all rights over the child.

Police Inspector Graziella Muscat told the court that the girl, who also spent time in children’s homes, was hyperactive and it had been very difficult to question her and find out what happened.

The girl had told her she was going to tell her something very naughty and indicated where she was intimately touched by her father.

The inspector said she spoke to the girl’s mother about her problems and why the child was also kept at a children’s home.

The mother told the inspector she knew about the abuse but was scared to say anything because she was afraid of her husband.

She told the inspector that the child suffered from asthma and eczema and she would have a rash in her private parts when she lived in children’s homes. But she stopped suffering from the condition when she lived at home with her and the accused.

The mother confirmed that the father would bathe the girl but would leave the door open and he had never applied eczema creme to the girl’s private parts. However, she was not sure whether he had ever administered suppositories.

The mother told the police that once, when she had gone out with a friend, she had asked her husband how he had spent his time with the girl and he told her they cuddled and joked around as usual.

However, the girl told her that he had massaged her and touched her intimately.

Inspector Muscat said she had also spoken to a nun who looked after the girl when at the children’s home. She told her that at one time she remembered washing the girl who told her she had bled.

When the nun told the mother, the mother told her that a vaginal pimple could have burst.

The girl told the magistrate she had told on her father to her mother. She confirmed that the sexual abuse only took place once, when her mother went out with a friend. She said that her father had been topless and wearing a skirt.

Social worker Rodianne Borg testified that the child had said her father would give her many punishments, and would punch her in the face. She said the minor had a leg wound and some minor bruises and confirmed that the father beat the girl on her private parts and made her bleed from the mouth.

The girl told the social worker that when she grew up, she wanted to throw her father out, hit him with a shoe and throw him out of the window.

Ms Borg said the mother used to tell her lot of things about the accused but warned her not to tell anyone else because he “would cut her head off”.

Stefania Sacco, from the Child Protection Services, confirmed that she received reports from the mother where it was alleged that the accused hit the girl, pulled her hair, twisted her arm and made her stand on one foot looking at the wall for 15 minutes. He also used to grab her tongue and pull it out of her mouth.

The mother also told Ms Sacco that the father had once locked the child in a dark room and the girl broke the glass door trying to get out. She injured her leg and needed sutures.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani said the facts in this case showed a very terrifying picture of a young girl who spent most of her young life going from one home to another and who had been subject to physical and sexual abuse.

In spite of her age, the girl had realised that her father “had been naughty”. It was also sufficiently proven that the incident took place in the family’s bathroom.”

Man jailed for abusing adopted five-year-old daughter
[Times of Malta 3/15/12]

“The father of an adopted five-year-old girl jailed for sexually abusing her was not accused of beating her, despite evidence pointing to her being exposed to systematic physical aggression, a magistrate noted yesterday.

The man, who cannot be named by court order, was jailed for four years and six months by Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani who, among other things, heard that hehad touched the girl intimately while his wife was out in July 2009.

The facts of the case painted a terrible picture of a girl who spent her life going in and out of institutes and when her mother finally took her home life did not get any better.

The evidence showed that the girl had been subjected to systematic physical aggression. Yet, this did not feature in the charges brought against her father, Magistrate Pado­vani noted.

She was made to stand on one leg for 15 minutes at a time in a corner and punched in the face.

In one of the more horrific incidents, her mother des­cribed how the father threw the girl on the bed, stood on her stomach and hit her in the face until she bled in the mouth. He then squeezed her neck until she almost stopped breathing. He would also grab and pull her tongue out.

In another sickening episode, the father locked the child in a dark room and, when she tried to get out, she ended up breaking a glass door. The girl was injured and required sutures.

The court heard that the mother knew exactly what was going on but refused to speak up out of sheer fear of her husband who threatened to “cut her head off”.

Such was her fear that, even when testifying in court she desperately tried to dis-credit reports by the social workers directly involved in the case.

The magistrate acknowledged that the girl’s mother was a victim of domestic violence and that the fear was well founded and very real, leading her to try and create a smoke screen to mislead the court.

The magistrate said she spoke to the girl and analysed her testimony. She noted that she had not been primed to say anything. This stood in stark contrast to her father who was not at all credible on the witness stand.

The girl had told her social worker that when she grew up she wanted to kick her father out of the house, hit him with a shoe and then throw him out of the window.”

Father hit young daughter until she bled
[Times of Malta 3/16/12 by Waylon Johnston]

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