The men, who are 71 and 44 years old, were sentenced to a collective eight years in prison.

The woman fainted after judgement was passed and an ambulance was called.

In a testimony given in 1999, the young girl said the two men often came to the house and she often witnessed them having sexual relations with her mother. “They undressed my mother and sometimes me,” she had said.

The girl said that after the men finished having sexual relations with her mother, they would undress her and kiss her. “My mother used to be there and she never stopped them,” she said.

The 43-year-old woman’s husband, the young girl’s father, was aware that things were not right in the house while he was at work, but he wanted to lead a peaceful life, did not want to cause trouble and did not question anything suspicious.

The young girl, then 10 years old, told the court she would watch “rude films” with her mother, who would then tell her, “pay attention so when the two men come, you can imitate what is done in the film”.

The young victim said her mother would beat her if she did not allow the men to touch her. Even at a later sitting, the court took note that there was a hint of fear in the girl’s behaviour.

In fact, she hesitated to mention anything of a sexual nature in the first statement she gave in December 1998. “I am afraid, because if I tell everything, my mother will beat me,” the girl had said.

The young girl’s schoolteachers noticed she was not happy. A social worker said she was always crying out for help and was fearful, but never gave any reasons for her behaviour.

At a meeting with the girl’s mother, the headmistress of the girl’s school had said the girl was giving explicit, sexual explanations to the other children.

The mother, being accused of corrupting her child, said her daughter probably picked up details from an encyclopaedia they had at home. In her testimony, the mother claimed her daughter fantasised and said everything her daughter had told the court and the police was a lie.

None of the men had ever touched her daughter, she said. The woman said she never noticed any character change in her daughter and said the girl had problems at school.

The 44-year-old man admitted he used to touch the young girl inappropriately, but claimed he did not do it with bad intentions, but simply to “have fun”.

He said “this was not obscene because I used to do these things in front of her mother.” The man later denied this admission.

His father claimed the young girl was “mean” and that he used to hit her. He had said he used to undress the girl and play with her while having sexual relations with her mother, but later claimed he never spoke these words. The men had been accused of rape, but on the evidence presented, the court ruled this to be a case of sexual abuse. The girl, who is now 15, was to be believed, said presiding magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera. Her story was consistent and she had given the same details to several people over the years.

The father and son were convicted for corrupting the then nine-year-old girl and sexually abusing her. The 71-year-old was sentenced to a five-year jail term while his 44-year-old son will be spending the next three years in prison.

The young girl’s mother was given a six-year jail term for failing to protect her daughter’s innocence. The court noted the woman made no attempt to shield her young daughter from the scandalous occurrences in their household, even went as far as encouraging her to go along with the two men.

The woman, therefore not only had a hand in corrupting her under-age child, but also failed her duty as a mother. Although the three accused were first time offenders, magistrate Scerri Herrera said a jail term was the only adequate punishment for their condemnable crimes.