Host family deny student's claims

A host family that had been heavily criticised by a foreign student have strongly denied allegations that the father was aggressive. The Malta Tourism Authority have backed the family by saying it is rather improbable that the student was ill-treated, as he had claimed.

The 22-year-old German, René Kautz, had complained to the MTA and to The Times that the host father often lost his temper and he had to cut his six-month stay in Malta short due to the family's aggressive behaviour.

The Times did not name the family but they have got in touch to deny the allegations, saying they were still identifiable to a lot of people who recognised the student from his picture.

The family said they have been happily hosting students for the past five years.

They claimed Mr Kautz started complaining about everything from his first day in Malta. It was Mr Kautz, they said, who had the "angry" expression when he spoke. He was often rude and it was not rare that he would not speak to Mr Degiorgio even though he was living in his house.

Mr Kautz had claimed he was accused of taking too many apples and of other such incidents that made his life a misery. But the family said he was the stingy one: in the first five weeks he lived with them, he only bought one packet (six bottles) of water. At the end of the five weeks, he still had two left, they said.

Once, they said, René found about two inches of water missing from one of his bottles and began yelling at the mother for drinking it.

But the final straw was when he had a fight with her over the water heater and called her "nuts and a liar". That is when the father intervened and reacted angrily, telling Mr Kautz that he would now have to abide by his rules and those of the house.

He left the family a few weeks before his departure from Malta.

An unannounced inspection of the house on August 26 indicated that the student's bedroom was up to standard and clean, the MTA said in reply to questions.

The living environment as a whole was also satisfactory, they said.

No previous complaints had been lodged against the host family, the authority pointed out.

"While it is extremely difficult to establish the truth since both parties gave conflicting versions of what happened, it is rather improbable that the student had been ill-treated for a number of months as he was old enough to take action, either by requesting police protection, or by simply moving out earlier at the first sign of a change in attitude on the part of the host family members."

The MTA however added that hosting people implies being prepared for possible clashes of personality and cultures and family members should be prepared for such a situation.

The Times regrets any damage that may have been caused to the host family.