MP says MFA has no title over Pace Grasso ground

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said yesterday that the MFA has no title over the Pace Grasso soccer ground at Paola and it therefore had no right last week to bar the use of the ground to the students of Guze D'Amato secondary school.

Access to the ground, which the school uses as a recreation area, was barred in the wake of controversy after the MFA retained a convicted paedophile in employment there as a groundsman for four months. That decision had led to criticism by, among others, Joe Gerada, CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, and Children's Commissioner Sonia Camilleri.

Dr Azzopardi said he had every respect for the MFA as an organisation which promoted sports, but he was amazed and very disappointed at the way it had acted in this case.

There should be zero tolerance to paedophilia and he therefore could not understand how the MFA had left it to the public to conclude whether "in a long life, if someone is found guilty only once of corrupting a minor, one should be labelled a paedophile."

Dr Azzopardi said that the short answer was 'yes.' In a long life, somebody who killed a person only once was still a murderer, and likewise, a person who corrupted a minor was a paedophile. And one could not retain a paedophile in employment in certain jobs.

The MFA's attitude showing insensibility, insensitivity, and a lack of responsibility.

When the recent case became known, several parents of children who attended Guze d'Amato School, round the corner from Pace Grasso, had contacted him and expressed concern.

He could also understand the shock expressed by Mr Gerada, and how Mrs Camilleri felt baffled.

Now the MFA was barring the children from the ground, reportedly so that it would no longer be unjustly accused by Mr Gerada and those who supported him and so that it would not enter into a controversy with those who, in its words, "choose to put the carriage before the horse."

This meant, Dr Azzopardi said, that these schoolchildren had to take their break and PE lessons at school, which had only two small yards which were massively overcrowded.

The groundsman, Dr Azzopardi observed, had admitted to corrupting a 13-year-old boy. It was therefore understandable that the parents were worried because his job put him in constant contact with children.

In choosing to bar the children from Pace Grasso had anyone at the MFA realised that the association actually had no title over the ground?.

Dr Azzopardi said he had been informed by the Lands Department that the lease agreement expired in August 1993 and therefore since then the MFA had been using the ground on tolerance.

He hoped he was wrong, but he did not think so. The schoolchildren, Dr Azzopardi said, had a right to use the ground, which was property of the Lands Department close to their school.

This episode, however, should lead to deeper reflection.

He felt that psychiatric care and counselling should be obligatory for all those convicted of paedophilia, and there should be national register of paedophiles, accessible only to selected organisations such as the police and social welfare agencies, listing the details of such people and the areas they frequented.

Certain jobs should be a "no go area" for those found guilty of paedophilia, especially since statistics showed that those who were victims today ended up as offenders several years down the line.

The country, Dr Azzopardi said, had a duty to protect its children.