A woman was jailed for 13 months suspended for two years after a court found her guilty of indoctrinating her children against her estranged husband.

The court, presided by Magistrate Joe Mifsud, heard how the Russian woman fabricated a story alleging that the man sexually abused of her six-year-old daughter.

Police inspectors told the court that the interviews with the two children, a son and a daughter, showed that they were indoctrinated by the mother.

The woman had filed a police report in March 2014 claiming that her estranged husband had sexually abused their daughter. This report was followed by a signed declaration stating that the man had touched the child inappropriately.

Inspector Melvin Camilleri, told the court that he began to suspect something was not right after an interview with the woman at the police headquarters.

“She spent most of the time speaking badly about her ex-husband instead of telling us what had happened,” the inspector explained.

He claimed that the interview the police conducted with the children seemed ‘rehearsed’.

During the interview, the child turned to her mother and spoke to her in Russian. Asked to translate, the woman said the child claimed the father had ‘pornographic eyes’ as he touched her.

The child eventually admitted that her mother had instructed her to make up this story.

The court ruled that the mother had made her daughter lie about the father and accused him with false allegations.

Chris Said and Angele Formosa appeared for the man.