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MT 19 October 2014

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ConviCted British paedophile Roderick Mcdonald, 76, was yester- day jailed for 18 months by the Mal- tese courts over possession of child pornography. Mcdonald, suspected to have been involved in the disappearance of Madeline McCann, admitted to being in possession of pornographic material found in his laptop. His defence said the court should take into consideration that "only three or four" photos were found in his laptop and these had been moved to the trash folder. on its part, the prosecution said the man had cooperated with the police. despite having been deleted, the pictures were easily accessible from the trash folder, it argued. Mcdonald has been on the run for two years but was this week found in Gozo. He is to be extradited to the UK following his arrest. Mcdonald, previously known as Roderick Wil- liam Robinson, was convicted in 2012 of abusing two girls. during a sojourn in Australia, Mcdonald also raped an 8-year-old girl. the Metropolitan Police are ex- pected to question him in connec- tion with McCann's disappearance. it is believed he was living in Al- garve, Portugal, in 2007 around the same time the little girl went miss- ing. maltatoday, Sunday, 19 OctOber 2014 News Norwegian in danger of dying Paedophile in suspected Maddie connection jailed 18 months A 23-year-old norwegian man who lives in Qormi is in danger of dying after apparently falling out of an apartment balcony, police said. At 8:30 am the police were in- formed that a man had suffered se- rious injuries in triq San edwardu, Qormi. Upon arriving at the loca- tion, they found the victim lying on the pavement. in hospital he was certified as having suffered serious injuries and of being in danger of death. Sant: More state aid for SMEs in Libya LABoUR MeP Alfred Sant has called for more state aid for SMes in war-torn areas such as Libya and Ukraine. "SMes in a number of member states that have developed long- standing commercial relations with these territories, such as between Malta and Libya, are being so badly hit that they face the threat of clo- sure under the current economic conditions," Sant said in the euro- pean Parliament. He asked whether the european Commission could consider waiv- ing or amending state aid rules when governments apply national support measures to protect SMes and their 'traditional' commercial relations with the war-torn areas. outgoing european Commis- sioner for Competition Joaquin Almunia told Sant that since July 2014 the state aid framework has become more "flexible" and "gener- ous" to provide support to SMes in zones of war or civil strife. "We do not have specific rules dealing with loss of commercial possibilities due to war or civil unrest," Almunia said. "However, we believe that, if exploited to the maximum, this new framework should provide support to SMes in such situations." Sant said there was need for a more flexible framework that will allow SMes to be given state aid. "it seems that the european Com- mission is not understanding this fact thoroughly. More efforts are needed to convince them." Roderick McDonald

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