The 60-year-old woman, whose name is not being published to protect the identity of the victim, was arraigned in November 1998 and charged with forcing her daughter into prostitution with the intention of making money, and living off these earnings.

During the various court sittings, the court heard how the girl used to call men and ask if they wanted her to “do something”. When the police approached her the first time, the girl told them that she was paid for the sexual services rendered to men. According to the police, the headteacher of the school attended by the girl said she was absent from school on various occasions.

The girl told police that she used to ask men if they ever “did to women what married men usually do” and if they replied in the affirmative, she invited them to touch their genitals with hers. She also explained that men usually touched her and would then pay her for the services. She said she gave the money to her mother to buy cigarettes and food.

Testifying, the girl told the court that her mother used to send her with men in order to get more money for them to live. She said she had a relationship with a certain Paul from Vittoriosa and that he used to pay her Lm2 every day for her sexual services.

The girl told the court that she never told her mother what she used to do with the men she went with. She said she charged 70 cents to perform oral sex and added that she never had sexual intercourse with any of the men she was with.

In her testimony, the mother said she lived on Lm38 a month she received from the government and she and her daughter did not have enough money to live a decent life.

At first she told the court that she knew her daughter received money for sexual services but then she changed her version and said she did not know this and that the money her daughter gave her was always given back to her to buy toys.

Handing down her judgement, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said the woman had a clean record but the court believed it should be severe in its punishment because the crime was serious, even more so when it involved a mother and her daughter.

She said the daughter is now 20 years old and her mother’s imprisonment would not have more of a drastic effect on her than the trauma this whole case had on her already. She therefore jailed the woman for three years.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera also ordered Police Commissioner John Rizzo to start criminal proceedings against a man for taking a false oath. The man, “Paul from Vittoriosa”, who the girl described as the man with whom she had a relationship, told the court he had never seen the girl before.

However, in a confrontation in court, the girl described in detail the contents of his house, including religious items that were inside it. When a court-appointed expert went to the house in question, the report and the girl’s description tallied perfectly. The magistrate therefore ordered the police to investigate the man for perjury.

Police inspector Sharon Tanti prosecuted.