Michael Muscat, 67, from Birżebbuġa was given a six-year jail term after admitting that he abused three children by recording two boys masturbating each other on video and touching the genitalia of another boy.

The accused lured the boys to his home with the excuse of letting one of them play with his dog and then invited two of his friends over.

Mr Muscat filed a guilty plea before Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani.

Police inspector Priscilla Caruana accused him of shooting a pornographic film involving children, enticed them to take part in it, corrupting them and of being in possession of other pornographic material.

One of the boys involved told the court that he got to know the accused at the age of seven after he frequently met him on the Birżebbuġa seafront with his his dog. The accused had invited the boy to his home to play with the pet, before he started visiting him almost every day.

The boy said that the accused let him play with his computer, while the accused used to touch his private parts. Every time this happened the accused used to give him between €3 and €20.

The boy admitted that he liked receiving money and told the court that the accused encouraged him to bring his friends. When he took his friends with him, the accused made them masturbate each other while the accused operated the video camera. The old man paid them €5 each and promised them that he would pay them €25 each the following day, since he promised them that he would pay them a total of €30 each.

The following day, the children went back to the accused’s home where the accused made them play with a vibrator. The magistrate noted that the boy did not call the machine a vibrator but described it as a machine that gives a tingling feeling. After this incident the accused paid the boys €17 each.

Recalling another incident, the boy said that he had been given €40 for letting the accused masturbate him but insisted that he never touched the accused’s genitalia or let him kiss him.

Meanwhile, police from the Cyber Crime Unit passed on to the courts the accused’s confiscated video camera and a computer on which he had saved multiple images depicting children aged under nine years in lewd acts.

The magistrate noted that she gave the accused a six-year jail term because he cooperated with the police and admitted early on in the court proceedings, however, she highlighted that his abuse, spread over a number of years, turned three young boys into male prostitutes.