The trial by jury of a woman and her daughter came to a close yesterday evening after the jury returned a non-guilty verdict to 22-year-old Stephanie Butler while her mother Carmen Butler, 43, was found guilty. However, the jury unanimously asked for clemency.
The woman was eventually jailed for two years suspended for four years.
The two Birzebbuga women were charged with money laundering. The police had started investigating the daughter, a chambermaid after e57,500 (Lm24,000) were discovered in her bank account while e27,000 (Lm12,000) were deposited in five deposits in another account she held.
The money was believed to come from the illicit activities of Charles Butler, the husband and father of the women. He is currently serving a 22-year jail sentence in Italy after he was caught smuggling immigrants to Sicily. The man was also notorious with the local police.
The panel of jurors retired in midday and returned with their verdict after five hours of deliberation. They found Stephanie Butler not guilty by eight votes to one and Carmen Butler guilty by six votes to three. They also unanimously asked Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo to show clemency when handing down his judgment.
The two women broke in tears as the foreman of the jury read the two different verdicts. After she was let out of the dock, the sobbing Stephanie Butler never took her eyes off her mother as she was standing and hearing the judge read through the judgment. As soon as Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo handed a suspended sentence, a smile returned to her tense face. After the judge retired, the two women hugged and kissed their lawyers, family and friends
In handing down his judgement, Mr Justice Caruana Demajo took into consideration defence lawyers Anglu Farrugia and Edward Gatt’s submissions on punishment, in which they requested a suspended sentence. They based their argument on the younger Butler’s frail health who is also a single mother, the daughter’s need for her mother’s support while the father was jailed abroad, the minimal guilty verdict, Carmen Butler’s clean police record and the fact that she was drawn into money laundering by her husband.
Prosecutor Aaron Bugeja asked the court to be balanced in the judgment, as Carmen Butler was found guilty of a very serious crime.
Mr Justice Caruana Demajo ruled that the woman had used her then 15-year-old daughter to launder money and made her go through a traumatising experience.