Suspended sentences for paedophiles

Charities and social organisations in the United Kingdom are currently leading a national outcry against a decision by a British judge (Judge Rogers, senior judge on the North Wales circuit) who gave a suspended sentence to a man on a paedophile charge.

This man did not molest minors. He was accused of downloading child pornography. He was awarded a six-month term of imprisonment, suspended for two years. Even so, this man was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the next seven years and placed under supervision.

The suspended sentence unleashed widespread public criticism. The head of the Youth Justice Board, Rod Morgan, resigned. Dame Mary Marsh, director and chief executive officer of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said that the sentence was "unacceptable".

A spokesman for the children's charity NCH described the judge's decision as "deeply worrying". His reaction was to the effect that the judge should think again. "I don't quite know what he was thinking about if he thought that child pornography offences are not serious," he declared. Anyone with access to the British print and broadcasting media can appreciate the lively and enduring sense of outrage generated by this one exceptional sentence.

In contrast, it has transpired by coincidence that a total of 39 persons were arraigned in Malta last year on paedophile charges. In reply to a parliamentary question, Tonio Borg, Minister for Home Affairs, informed me that 11 of these had their cases decided in court. Three were given jail sentences. No less than seven received suspended sentences. The other cases are still sub judice.

The release of this information was followed by the silence of the grave. The public is distracted. The media have their fish to fry. Malta has come to resemble Alice in Slumberland.

In this somnolent island, public and media opinion seems to be comatose on this sensitive issue. The issue is moral, social and legal - not political. Are there no social and religious leaders willing and able to stand up and be counted, to rally public opinion and to demand an end of what looks like a conspiracy of silence?