Appeals Court confirms six-year jail term for teacher guilty of corrupting schoolboy

A Court of Criminal Appeal has confirmed a six- year- jail term for a teacher who, in 2014, had been found guilty of corrupting a schoolboy.

Alexander Giacomotto, 62, of Birkirkara had been guilty of defiling the boy on various occasions at his Qawra house, in his car and even at school.

The defilement took place between 1992 and 1996, but the boy only spoke up in 2005 when he met his girlfriend and told her about his experience.

He had filed a police report the following year and Giacomotto was charged in 2007.

The indecencies began when the victim was 12 years old and continued until he was 16.

The teacher had asked the boy to go with him after school to buy some Christmas decorations. He took him to his flat in Qawra where he gave him vodka with orange, showed him a gay pornographic film and abused him.

The boy told the court that when it was all over he burst into tears. The boy was also given some money.

The teacher later persuaded the boy’s parents to send their son to him for private lessons.

The court had heard that Giacomotto gave the boy many presents, including a computer, as well as free private lessons. Giacomotto also promised to buy the teenager a place to live in and had given him 23,000 as deposit on property.

The court had ruled that the teacher had abused his position of trust and that the repeated sexual acts had had permanent effect on the student. Giacomotto had been placed in the pedophile register.

Giacomotto, now 70 years old, had appealed the sentence and argued that the boy had ulterior motives when he had filed a report ten years later, and also requested that he be given a more lenient sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeal, president by Judge Edwina Grima, denied the appeal and confirmed the sentence.