A 13-year-old girl is at Mount Carmel Hospital, half way into her detention period, after she was sentenced to seven days in prison for threatening three young women and injuring one of them.
She was initially taken to the Corradino Correctional Facility on Tuesday and placed in a cell close to the Yours (Young Offenders Unit Rehabilitation Services) section where young men over 15 are detained, Prison director Sandro Gatt said when contacted.
Mr Gatt explained that, two hours into her detention period, the girl was moved to the hospital after doctors were consulted. She will be completing her detention term there, he said.
He added that, as far as he can recall, she was the youngest person ever to be detained in prison.
The Times has learnt from sources that the girl was transferred to the hospital for health reasons and not because of her age.
The NGO Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl, which works among prison inmates, protested against the jailing of the child and objected to what it called an "inhumane and cruel decision".
The girl was found guilty of verbally threatening three young women, slightly injuring one of them when she pulled her hair, uttering obscene words in public and breaching the peace on March 4 last year.
She had originally been charged alongside two 14-year-old girls in the Juvenile Court presided over by Magistrate Anthony Vella.
The court heard that, for no apparent reason, a group of teenage boys and girls started hurling insults at three young women who were walking past the Embassy shopping complex in Valletta. The 13-year-old pulled the hair of one of the young women and injured her.
The three young women (the victims) filed a report and the police eventually arrested and charged the two 14-year-olds and the 13-year-old who were found guilty and sentenced to seven days in detention.
(The law distinguishes between detention and a jail term. A jail term is handed down on conviction of committing a crime while detention is the punishment applied for a contravention. Sentences of detention are not listed in a person's criminal record.)
The 14-year-olds appealed and their case is still pending but the 13-year-old did not do so.
When contacted, the lawyers of the 13-year-old, Andy Ellul and Vincent Micallef, said they had tried to persuade the parents to file an appeal but had not succeeded.
Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl secretary George Busuttil said that, although Maltese law stipulated that the age of criminal responsibility was nine years, this did not mean that children - at least until the age of 16 - should be "thrown into jail".
This was in breach of children's rights and went against any sense of judicial decency and prudence, he said. In fact, the Criminal Code lays down that minors under nine years of age are exempt from criminal responsibility for any act or omission and minors under 14 are exempt from criminal responsibility for any act or omission "done without mischievous discretion".
The law adds that: "Saving the powers of the minister under the Children and Young Persons (Care Orders) Act, minors under the age of 14 but over nine who, acting with a mischievous discretion shall commit an offence, shall be liable on conviction..." and leaves the punishment to the discretion of the court depending on various factors such as age and the nature of the crime.
Mr Busuttil insisted that jail was no place for children. "Although the prison guards took care of the girl as best they could, the experience she was going through was horrifying.
"Society expects the courts to show more responsibility. While we feel that, often, magistrates have their hands tied by what is dictated by law, we expect more compassion especially when children are involved," he said.