Three admit indecent acts

In another newspaper the name of the magistrate hearing this case is mentioned. What happens in cases like this depends on what the law states but also on the magistrate. From an interview with her some months ago in the same newspaper she seems like a very down to Earth person who has children roughly in the same age bracket as the people mentioned above. I hope that common sense prevails.

Just a thought...Two teens, 16 and 14 are dating. Sex included. They keep dating 2 years, their relationship gets stronger, they are planning to marry in future...BANG! One of them turned 18. They must break up. Or else, they must turn their relationship into non-sexual until the younger one will turn 18 too..If not, someone reports them to Police...and we will read the next article with the name of 18 y o offender. Look around yourself, any teenagers are dating under 18? Who's birthday first?

@Charles Sammut: exactly my sentiments. But I would not have used the word 'naive' I'd have used 'people in denial'

Laws are written by people. Laws frequently change because people's ideas often change. Our high age of consent is sending people to prison unnecessarily. Some do not appear to grasp the meaning of the term 'age of consent' .To put is simply it is the age at which the law says that a person can engage in sex while knowing what s/he is doing. It is 18 years in Malta. Therefore, in Malta, a young man or woman of 17 who has any rapport going beyond a kiss (maybe not even a longish kiss) with an older person could send that person to prison if s/he so decides.

In Malta our laws allow a young woman or a young man of 16 to marry a person of let's say 60, while not allowing a man of 21 to do anything more than just hold hands with a person of 17. The law, as Susan Galea says, labels him a pedofile for the rest of his life.

@ Susan galea: yes that's what I described. My point was that it's not what Joseph Schembri was talking about.

Methinks there are a lot of genuinely naïve people here. Some 14 year old girls will run circles round some men.

But we live in Malta where everyone lives happily in sacred matrimony, or holy celibacy; where there are no pog***i and no kor***i and where everyone under 18 years is pure as the driven snow. We don't need divorce and we have enough moral sand so that everyone can blissfully bury his head in virtuous oblivion. We make Theran and Kabul look like Sodom and Gomorrah!

Yes of course, technically illegal, but the law is an ass anyway.

Michael Andrews, it might just have something to do with the fact that the men you refer to are legally men; whereas the three fourteen year old girls are legally fourteen year old girls. In most developed countries the fact that these men had carnal knowledge of these girls is tantamount to statutory rape. In other words by law, the tender age of these girls means the crime is one of imposed sexual activity. They are deemed too young by law to consent to sexual activity with these men and with the men only being legally responsible they will be dealt with accordingly. It was incumbent upon the men not to have sexual activity with minors. That is the law.; their responsibility having reached their legal majority; their decision to flout the law and, if caught, face the consequences. In America for example, they could be charged as paedophiles, and be required to be registered as such for the rest of their lives.

What you have described, Malcolm Tortell, is munchausen syndrome by proxy. That is where a parent (usually) claims all sorts of illness are suffered by their child to secure attention for themselves. Joseph Schembri is not right to change the spelling however, to Manchausen in English we allow Munchausen or Munchhausen but not Manchausen because it is simply not necessary.

Today's world is different than when i grew up,however saying that,it was not unusual to see teenagers having kids when i was a teenager in England.
Malta is "catching up " so to speak in terms of teens having kids out of wedlock and this is the way it is unfortunately.
What i don't understand is why the boys were brought in front of a judge when what they did was with consenting girls within their age group.
If it was rape then i could understand,but it was consensual and if it is such a crime why can the girls not be brought in front of the judge too.
It takes 2 to tango and the girls always seem to be the innocent party.

The men admitted to committing "sexual acts with THREE 14-year-old grils".

Did I misunderstand that, or did everyone else do so? It does not look like a case of 3 "couples", but more like some kind of orgy, making the case even worse, given the ages of the girls in question.

Are you still living in the ideal world?! Its saddening that teenagers of 14 years are no longer children!! But its the sad reality 14 year old have sex and engage in sexual activities whether we like it or not! Obviously thank God, not all 14 year olds but...

Therefore before we start patronising let's see the outcome of the case! Even if they admitted, we have to see if the girls consented!!

The correct spelling is: Münchhausen. As we have no equivalent for the German ü, some people use an 'a' and others a 'u'. The double h is dropped by most English users.

Our age of consent is the highest in Europe and amongst the highest in the world. Countries which share our age of consent include: Eritrea,Turkey, Uganda and Vietnam.

I accepted the invitation to visit the hi5 network as suggested by someone below. I re extend this invitation to you all. Go see for yourself. It seems to be very popular with Maltese 'children'.

For the record my personal view is that sex should only occur within marriage. But I would never impose my personal beliefs on anyone. That would put me in the company of countries such as Iran. (They have no age of consent: Sex is only legal within marriage)

Just because someone wishes that others enjoy certain freedoms does not mean that that person approves of or will participate in the acts which those freedoms allow. It does not follow that the entire MLP cabinet in the 70's was homosexual because they legalised homosexual acts.

@ Joseph Schembri: whatever you described is not Munchausen's Syndrome. Munchausen's is when a parent projects his or her own hypochondria onto a child.

Joseph Schembri, the term is spelt Munchausen syndrome. Why don't you realise that making these generalisations about the psychological and moral orientation of our fourteen year old girls based on no factual basis is nothing but risible. The law is there to protect the innocent, and I would be doubtful if anywhere in the developed world if your notion that fourteen year olds are as you would have it would inform the law; designed for the protection of minors. Do you know how many cases of Munchausen syndrome there are in Malta? Your views on child-rearing are scary. I pity your children if you have any.....

I must admit I was somewhat irked when I read this article for the first time. How come this newspaper protects the identity of a 46-year-old hotel manager defiling a 14-year-old boy (there's a 32-year difference, and that's not usually considered natural), but then goes on to publish the names of these youths who had an affair with three CONSENTING girls who are in their age group? Two weights, two measures anyone?

And I just cannot understand all this talk about morality.

Let's set the record straight and start by noting the hypocrisy upheld by our law: you can get married at 16 but you cannot have any sexual activity before you're 18 (http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaMalta.pdf). I really cannot fathom how anyone can defend that with any logical argument - it's beyond me.

I also encourage anyone defending the sexual innocence of 14 year olds to sign up for a free membership account with the online social network hi5.com. Go ahead and enjoy the crass photos put on show.

Last but not least, I suggest you have a look at this: http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm

And here, any further comment is superfluous, really.

Schembri....you are quite a disgusting person as I see...its not because its something that is happening must be accepted and tolerated....the morality must be defended at all cost...and yes 14 year old girl is still young to have sex and if such things happen its not good....if you want your 14 year old girl to live like a prostitute than well done my friend...you live on Mars

If "most of us did it" - I don't want my children to do it for it will damage them moraly and I want that my children appreciate love, true love and not just pleasure

@Nadia Camilleri: In answer to your first question: it is because our laws (=our legislators) and some of the magistrates still think that a 14 year old girl is a child in the 'pink fairy princess' sort of way. I don't agree with you that this is a present day phenomenon. Turn to literature and actual history and you'll find that people have been doing this sort of stuff since time immemorial. It is only now that in the west we have the dictatorship of the child and that instead of disciplining young people we are molly coddling them and adding fuel to their fancies. It is not uncommon to hear a young person scream out "I'll call the child abuse line' if a parent as much as raises their voice.

I remember a few years ago, on TV, the respected former Judge Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici saying how a boy had invented a complete sexual abuse case and that everyone had been taken in and one man was going to be sent to prison hadn't it been for a chance remark by the boy's mother. Nowadays psychologists even have a name for such cases: Manchausen Syndrome.

typical comments you would expect to see from the maltese
especially mr schembri
how anyone can attempt to justify the rape of 14 year old girls is beyond me.
perhaps mr Schembri would like the age limit to be lowered to say 12 yrs old?
as long as people have this view malta will continue to be perceived as a backwards country

The article says "committed sexual act" ... that means that the girls consented to this act. So how come they and or/ their guardians were not prosecuted as well?

A 14-year old is still a child in my humble, ignorant opinion. So how come she was having sex? Our life's values and principals are turning up-side-down for the sake of modern times. So if we are accepting this "rubbish" as part of our modern life, how come we are still scandalized by the words "divorce" and "abortion"?

At the end of the day, we are turning ourselves into a bunch of hypocrites!!

I am constantly amazed that the name and shame criterion does not apply across the baord. Sometimes, the reason, (or is it an excuse) "to protect the victims" is used; yet probably there are many who know the names of the girls who hung out with these opportunistic idiots.

Thank you Joseph Schembri. I think the rest of the commenters here are living in a different world!!! I have nothing to add to your comment except that I beleive the commenters are not living in 2008.... The same kind of people that dont want to legalize divorce. But Malta is still one of the top in Europe that has the most amount of single parents in Europe. Congratulations!!!

Aleady granted bail?

Very efficient court!

This is not just an indecent act. It is statutory rape. The men are over eighteen and the girls are only fourteen. They come under the category of sexual offenders. Having said that, how come they are named and other child rapists who do it in a more threatening way are not?
Double standards anyone?

Were are the laws...for committing sexual acts with girls underage - age 14...the names are published but that someone abuse of children of 14 years as were the girls his name is hidden...the laws are equal to everyone.

Can someone tell us the answer?

For Heaven's sake: it is considered normal for 18 year old boys to have 14 year old girlfriends and to do a little more than hold hands! Most of us did it!
In Malta an 18 year old man can be arraigned because his 17 year old girlfriend says that he fondled her. A person of 17 and 1/2 years is considered a minor when it comes to sex but he or she is old enough to join the army and go kill other people with the blessing of the state. We have the highest age of consent in Europe (equal to that of Turkey). Look up the ages of consent in all other EU states. In some people's ideal world, sex would occur only within the narrow confines of marriage but young people have been having sex since the beginning of time with people their age or older or younger. No one is going to stop it. Rape is one thing and so are perverted acts with children but over here we are talking about something different. The Maltese legal definition of a 'minor' does not equate with the real world definition of 'child'.