Appeals court clears Gozitan of corrupting a minor
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A Gozitan man who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a toddler has been cleared after the appeal court ruled that the case had been "blown out of proportion".
The 21yr old had previously been given a three-year jail term suspended for three years, after the Magistrates Court found him guilty of the violent indecent assault of a 21-month old boy and also offending public morals at Ramla l-Hamra on May the 25th 2006.
On examining the evidence, Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano noted that this was a case that had been "blown out of proportion" by everyone, including the police who issued the charges against the man. The accused suffered from "an age-inappropriate level of cognitive function across both the verbal as well as non-verbal spectrum".
On the day of the incident the accused was at Ramla beach where there was an English couple with two children. When the mother changed her 21-month old boy, and left him on a towel with no clothes on, the accused noticed that there was sand on the child. As he drew this to the attention of the mother, he pointed at the child. As the man repeated this gesture he apparently touched the private parts of the child, the mother then informed the police.
The judge noted that the incident happened in the presence of the child's family and that the man did not try to hide anything. A psychologist testified that the man had communication problems and, as a result, he gesticulated and used his arms more than the average person.
The Chief Justice noted that the man's actions were uncalled for, as the sand on the child was none of his business, one could also understand the concern of the parents when a stranger touched their child, however, the elements of the crime had not been proven.
The court was convinced that the man's actions, to point at the child and touch him, were the result of his efforts to try and draw the mother's attention to the sand on the child and that there was never any sexual intent in his actions and therefore cleared him of all charges.
The mans name is not being made public due to his cognitive disability.
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