The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday confirmed the 15 and 25-year jail sentences a mother and son were condemned to after they were found guilty of the murder of Rachel Bowdler.

Jason Decelis, 32, and his 59-year-old mother Concetta were found guilty of murdering 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler when they did not call for assistance after she had taken a heroin overdose. That was the first case in Maltese history when someone was found guilty of murder by omission.

During the same trial by jury, which ended on 13 June 2006, Carmel Decelis, 59, father of Jason and separated husband of Concetta, was jailed for a year and a half for involuntary homicide. He has already served his time.

The body of Ms Bowdler was found in a field in the road leading from Mgarr to Golden Bay on 13 May 2001. She took an overdose at Concetta Decelis' St Paul's Bay apartment while in the company of Jason Decelis.

The Court of Appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice David Scicluna and Mr Justice Joseph Micallef upheld Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono's judgment.

The court said that there was no doubt that the penalties inflicted were well within the parameters contemplated by the law. So much so, that the maximum penalty for murder is life sentence.

It said that the first court had considered all mitigating circumstances of the case, including that there was not a unanimous verdict and the jury's plea for clemency for the mother.

The panel of judges said that the difference in the penalties between the mother and son was made up by Jason's "colourful" criminal record and the clemency plea in favour of his mother.

The judges said there was no doubt on the cruelty of the case, where the mother and son did not do the most obvious and elementary of things, to phone for medical aid. Instead they “cured” her themselves in order not to involve “justice”.