A man who stands accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s mother while tormenting the family with a demonic ruse succeeded in bending that household to his will, a court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege that the 22-year-old raped the mother, forced her and her daughter to perform sexual activities and effectively held them hostage inside their own home. He is pleading not guilty. 

Taking the stand on Tuesday, the girl’s mother described the relationship between the accused and the household as pleasant enough in the early days,  though things soon started to sour.

The accused, she said, began to order her and her daughter around, forcing them to cook for him and on occasion preventing her daughter from going to school.

Admitting she had always held a fascination with the occult, she said that the “demon” first made an appearance around August of 2018, when she awoke one night to find herself being hit by water while sleeping in the same bedroom as the accused and her two daughters. 

She heard the voice of the accused and was then beaten with a shoe.

The accused often beat her with a whip, telling her that the demon had ordered him to abuse her.

She recalled an incident in which “the demon” had ordered her eldest daughter to sexually assault her with a broomstick. When she refused to do so, the accused proceeded to do so himself, using great force.

That daughter testified in court on Monday, recounting multiple instances of physical, sexual and mental abuse. 

In her testimony on Tuesday, the mother said she had deliberately overdosed on pills, to be taken to Mount Carmel hospital, as she claimed the accused would never let her leave the house.

Defence lawyer Mario Mifsud noted two videos in which the woman’s husband and her daughter expressed doubts as to the existence of the demon.

In what appeared to be an argument, the woman’s husband could be heard asking her why she was “refusing to support her family” as she was allegedly routinely missing work, to which she replied, “it’s the spirit”.

“It’s not the spirit!” the husband retorted angrily. “You like whoever is sticking the broom up you, that’s who you like,” he continued.

Daughter was just 14 when she started dating accused

The woman’s second daughter, who dated the accused, testified in the afternoon.

She was just 14 when she started to date him, she told the court. He was 17 or 18 at the time.

The accused had moved into her mother’s house after a few weeks. He was a student but hardly went to lectures, preferring to spend most of his time on the PlayStation, she said.

She said the “demon” ruse started after the family watched the film The Nun at the cinema. That 2018 film is themed around the occult and features a demonic entity attacking nuns and civilians at a monastery.

The girl also recounted the assault on her mother with the broomstick in tears, saying that the accused was “aggressive” and her mother was “crying out in pain” throughout.

After this incident, he had forced the two sisters and their mother downstairs and forced them to drink whisky until her sister ended up vomiting, she said. He then forced her to undress her sister and clean her up, as he watched.

On another occasion, he had ordered her and her sister to shower together and shortly after she heard a commotion in the corridor, opening the bathroom door to find a burning cross on the ground.

She recounted several other instances of abuse in which the accused cut her mother with a knife and whipped her “until she was purple”.

A peaceful house 'when he was gone'

The demonic voices all stopped when the accused left the house to go to football practice, she said.

“We were a peaceful household when he was gone,” she told the court.

She said that she had initially engaged in consensual sex with the accused but over time he began to treat her poorly and demanded rough sex from her.

“I felt I was not in a position to say no to him, I was 14 and he treated me like an object, he took what he wanted and discarded me until he felt like it again,” she said tearfully.

Childhood trauma and abuse

The victim also described a difficult childhood caused by her mother’s partying, substance abuse, interest in the occult and infidelity.

Her parents had a bad relationship because her mother was constantly sleeping with other men, sometimes taking her daughters out with her on her dalliances, she said.

“At least once a week my mother would go meet a strange man and my sister and I would have to wait on his sofa in an unfamiliar house while they had sex,” she said.

“She used to go out partying and leave me alone all night long while I would be sick with worry not knowing where she was,” she continued, adding that as a result she spent long stretches of time living with her grandparents. 

“He brainwashed me to the point where I sincerely doubted whether it was a demon or him, and I used to implore my mother to stick up for him,” she said when asked by the defence if she had ever stood up to the accused.

“My mother and I were easy to manipulate,” she continued, “I admit, I am a soft person and my mother is fragile. She never questioned the things he ordered her to do, and she had been controlled by every single member of my family,” she continued.

She admitted that she had lied to the magistrate initially but later, after discussing the matter with her social worker, she realised that telling the truth was the right thing to do. 

The case is scheduled to continue on Wednesday. 

AG lawyers Angele Vella and Francesco Refalo are prosecuting. Lawyer Mario Mifsud is defence counsel. 

Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera is presiding over the trial, which is being held without a jury at the defence's request. The court has ordered a ban on the publication of the names of those involved.