Driver denies screening porn film in school bus

Lisa Schembri

May 9th 2008, 12:44

I agree with the sex offender register but the lines will be flooded on the first morning it opens from the amount of crude and vulgar comments I and other women recieve from perverse men on the street and also men in cars including buses.

Lets just say that i'll be glad if the bus driver is truely innocent.It wouldn't be very nice to hear that it was really his video and he intentionally wanted to screen it on a bus full of children.

Johnna Grech

May 8th 2008, 11:03

I am glad to see such an interest in justice being served and a person not being presumed guilty before a trial. If the pornographic material was not the driver's and he had no knowledge of it being on the bus and available to the minor students; then he is indeed innocent. However, if the material was in fact his own than he is responsible for the incident wether it was intentional or not. One needs to question the morals and mature judgement of someone in the care of minors to have such material within access of children.

Rachel Borg

May 8th 2008, 01:40

I completely agree with, Matthew Grima, in addition acccording to human rights (article 4) "a person should not be subjected to degrading behaviour" thus unless this man is found guily by our courts of law, he should definately be left unidentified and even more spare him being the puppet of people who live on gossiping. The people who hereunder want to know his name should wait until the verdict and not use the excuse of knowing information for safety...

Malcolm Seychell

May 7th 2008, 23:35

I think we should wait for the investigation If you still believe that today 14 year old kids are virgins you are totally wrong I won't take it as surprise that a couple of girls started this up. Obviously others reported the case because they felt it shouldn't have happened. Ask teachers and they will tell you the daily stories they face by supposed kids when it comes to sex Whether we like it or not time changes and this is a new reality we have to face

Josette Piscopo

May 7th 2008, 17:32

If the children have to be protected, then the school and the route should never have been mentioned. If the driver is innocent as regards to showing them the porn film, he is sure not innocent in playing the film if he was driving the van at the time, as I'm sure he would be a little distracted. I'm afraid that some drivers play DVDs for the children to see while they are driving thier vans. We as parents have to make pressure so these things do not happen, because this can lead to serious traffic offences.

John Schembri

May 6th 2008, 20:43

"Let us protect our "innocent" children ( whom we leave alone and unattended downloading films from the web) from this (already presumed guilty ) bus driver. " this is what the cybermob is saying before lynching anyone who is in contact with children.
With this kind of attitude people are already scaring away volunteers in scouting , football club nurseries , tal-Muzew and other voluntary organisations , I have already heard of two cases of valid leaders who are pondering to leave their organisation fearing this attitude.
How many parents are ready to register their names on a list of parents who leave their children unsupervised on the computer or watching TV?

Claire Bonello

May 6th 2008, 19:24

To all lynch mob members out there, I'll just point out some facts before you bust an artery. In the first place the bus driver has not been found guilty of any offence to date, so the stoning or whatever else you have in mind will have to be postponed for a while (In the meantime you can get all worked up about how unfair it is that we cant just condemn people without a proper trial first). As for your sex offenders' register - this might help with CONVICTED offenders but does nothing to protect children from first-time pervs or the more common abuse situations - those within the family. Having the most updated form of sex ofenders' register will not help much if your children are online chatting to a pervert who is disguising his identity online. This is the most likely situation where abuse can happen. If you want to prevent it happening perhaps it would be better to see what your children are up to online - rather than posting hysterical comments on newspaper sites

Franco Farrugia

May 6th 2008, 19:12

Innocent until proven guilty - or doesn't this apply to Dark Malta?
He has still not been proved guilty. Given the accusation, I agree that his name should not be made public. What if he's innocent? Wouldh't that accusation be harmful for him?
And why a sex offenders' registser? To 'protect our children' or for other, darker, intentions?

I smell hypocrisy here, anyway.

Matthew Grima

May 6th 2008, 18:34

On one hand I totally agree about setting up a sex offender register. Many countries have one in order to protect the public from further potential abuse by letting everyone know who has committed a sexual offence in the past. On the other hand, I do not agree with all the people who have compared this case to the one where a teacher was involved. As far as I know, the religion teacher did actually admit to the charges that were brought against him and a judgement has been passed by the courts of law.

A good opinion is one which is made when all facts are out from all parties involved, that is, the suspect, victims and the courts!
However, in this case, the only evidence the public has about the case are the facts about the driver's arraignment. As a result, how can anyone judge a person without knowing the details of the case? It is at the point where the court passes its judgement on a case that the suspect is found innocent or guilty. I therefore think that all the "experts" who have posted a comment on this forum should reserve their opinions as real cases are no melodramas that are up for gossip but a system by which hopefully the guilty are punished and the innocent are let free.

Good opinions are ones which are made after the suspects, victims, witnesses and experts have compiled statements which help the court decide on an appropriate judgement.

Keith Chircop

May 6th 2008, 18:13

Wait for the verdict before hanging this man.

Fleur Hili

May 6th 2008, 16:27

I totally agree that there should be a sex offenders register, but give this man some doubt.
I will wait to see the court verdict on this case.
I was a pupil in a private school and one of the girls had a thing for a particular priest who taught us Religion at the time.
She use to sit in the front desk showing him all her given assets and asking questions,that I today would be embarrassed to ask!!!BTW she was thirteen.
I am not saying that the girls and/or driver and guilty or innocent but this is not the same as the previous sex abuse case.

Ramon Casha

May 6th 2008, 15:41

The responses to this article show why the courts are right to protect the identity - yes, even of the accused.

Until and unless this man is convicted, he is presumed innocent. Yet does anyone here think that society will treat him as presumed-innocent if his name is revealed? Out of five responses (at the time of writing), four seem to assume that the driver is guilty.

Call me pedantic, but I still think the verdict should precede the sentence.

Jennifer Cosaitis

May 6th 2008, 15:31

Banning the driver's name is just unbelievable - and the same goes for the last case of the saga which involved the former religion teacher. Who are we trying to protect here? We should name and shame this people.

With regards to the previous comments, I also believe that it is about time that Malta too had its sex offenders register.

Kevin Zammit

May 6th 2008, 15:12

I agree, we need a sex offenders register here to protect our children

Kirstan Murphy Adams

May 6th 2008, 14:34

I fully agree with Amanda Mallia, what has publishing his name got to do with protecting the children?

Why is it that the adult is always protected and the children aren't? I would like to know when are we going to take these incidents seriously?

Bill Millam

May 6th 2008, 14:17

The driver's name cannot be published by court order "to protect the children"???? Sounds more like protecting the driver's identity to me!
Malta should start a register of sex offenders and people like this driver (upon conviction) should be the first ones to go on that list and never ever again be allowed anywhere near ANY kids.

Bill Millam
Los Angeles

Amanda Mallia

May 6th 2008, 14:15

Here we go again, when the dust hasn't yet settled on the last child abuse case to cause a great furore ... Banning the name of the man in question with the paultry excuse that it is to protect the children. It would be far better if children are protected from people like these.


When are we ever going to learn?