Girl tells how she was forced into prostitution

Denis Catania

Sep 26th 2008, 15:53

@Corrine Vella: At the end of the day aren't men all clients. Look how many woman leave their husband after a financial disaster hits home. How many woman don't accept a second date, because the man didn't spend enough on the first date. Most woman would marry a lawyer before a laborer. A lot of mothers tell their daughters to marry money. At the end of the day some woman don't have to prostitutes to make us clients. Remember Corrine I didn't start the phrase Gold Diggers.Go behind the doors of most villas, you will find a gold digger or 2. You know what I mean Ms Vella.
@ most woman: I know most of you stick to your man no matter what. But you know what I mean.
@Mothers of beloved sons: You know what I mean, right.

Corinne Vella

Sep 26th 2008, 11:52

Denis Catania: You've already demonstrated that your logic is anything but. Why do you continue to labour the point?

Corinne Vella

Sep 26th 2008, 06:55

Joseph Schembri: It is not the girl who was on trial, but the person who pushed her into prostitution and who then pocketed her earnings. I'm sure you are already aware that to live off so-called 'immoral earnings' is a crime.

Denis Catania

Sep 26th 2008, 03:23

@Corrine Vella: I don't condone this, but if the service wasn't there the clients wouldn't be there. Some people look at the glass half full, others look at it half empty.

Corinne Vella

Sep 26th 2008, 02:33

Joseph Schembri: That draws even more people into the category of abuser in this case. I'm talking about a girl forced into prostitution. So are you.

Joseph Schembri

Sep 25th 2008, 18:09

There is the concept derived from Roman Law that roughly translated from Latin says that 'you cannot corrupt who is already corrupt'. The fact that this girl (unfortunately) had been doing it for quite some time before she met this Serb might put the whole question of corruption and defilement in a different light. But this is open to interpretation by the magistrate and there have been sentences where it was decided that the already 'corrupt' can be further corrupted.

Joseph Schembri

Sep 25th 2008, 17:57

Corinne Vella: Yours is a common misconception.

FACT 1: The age of consent in Malta is 18. It's hard to believe, I know, but it is true. Just to make sure that we are talking about the same thing: age of consent is the age at which a person is allowed to say 'yes' to sex without legal repercussions on the other party. Remember also that the word 'sex' in Malta is defined by the magistrate presiding the case. For some it can be as little as an open mouth kiss.

FACT 2: A person of 16 and over in Malta can marry anyone of any age. But the law does not recognize consensual sex at that age.

FACT 3: Age of consent in Europe varies between 12 and 18 (There being only one country with an AoC of 18 - Malta).

FACT 4: Teenagers have been hauled in court and face prison sentences + life long labeling as paedophiles and child abusers because another party who happened to be under 18 alleged that sex had occurred. (vide cases reported in the Times)

Melissa Bagley

Sep 25th 2008, 17:28

As Joe Cordina wrote, prostitution has nothing to do with nationality. And Malta is not exempt.

The issue of the increase in the number of crimes committed has nothing to do with foreigners on Maltese shores, I Galea. I'll bet that somebody will probably say that I am non-Maltese yada yada yada because a have a non-Maltese surname and therefore I shouldn't comment. Ghax issa drajtha l-affari!

Lynda Thatcher

Sep 25th 2008, 15:35

I.Galea Take a walk around London in the East End and Soho you will see lots of your fellow countrymen, they have a reputation for involvment in the sex industry. Please don,t assume that Maltese men never use a prostitutes services.

Corinne Vella

Sep 25th 2008, 12:39

Joseph Schembri: The age of consent in Malta is 16 not 18. Age is relevant to this news story because it is a report of a crime where age is the defining factor. All of the girl's clients are open to prosecution for the criminal action of sex with a person who is under the age of consent, whether or not the transaction involved money.

M Borg

Sep 25th 2008, 12:08

Why is it that this man's name is not published??
Why is the victim's mother not prosecuted, when the child was under age?
why is the victim's pimp not prosecuted?
are VAT and Inland Revenue taking into consideration to issue EX-Ufficio bills to these 'workers'? One can easily work out their income!
What about the Commissioner for Children?? 15 year old is definately a child!!!

MALTA.....wake up!

Joseph Schembri

Sep 25th 2008, 11:31

If anyone is forced into doing anything that that they do not want to (corinne: i don't like paying taxes, does that count too? :P) then they are being abused and the act should be considered immoral.

For me it could have been a 30 year old woman or man who had been abused instead of a 15 year old. Age is less important to me in this case as one can go to nearby Sicily and legally have sex with a 14 year old - everything above board! The 18 year old age of consent is an arbitrary boundary imposed in only one country in Europe: Malta. The mental age of the person and whether they consent is what matters. In this case the journalist used the word 'forced' implying that there was no consent on the girl's part. That is what makes it immoral to me and not her age.

Corinne Vella

Sep 25th 2008, 10:29

Joseph Schembri: That's exactly what I mean. You say nothing about the girl's abusers, which is what her so-called 'clients' really are.

Paul Barrett

Sep 25th 2008, 10:08

@ M Xuereb - LOL - True, you can make statistics come up with all sorts of conclusions. Your last sentence has me perplexed. I did not intend to point any fingers at anyone and certainly not the authorities but based on the article, there does seem to be the possibility of quite a few who would read this article and especially the sentence imposed, could say to themselves "but for the grace of God, go I".

@ john said - Prostitution (quite sensibly) is not a crime. Loitering in the streets with intent to prostitute and pimping (living off the earnings of a prostitute) are crimes. Under-age sex is definitely a crime - hence the term "Jail Bait".

Kenneth Cassar

Sep 25th 2008, 10:01

@ John Said:

Prostitution (except with minors) is not illegal by itself. It is loitering or suggesting their "services" to bystanders that is. Sometimes this is difficult to prove, especially if the prostitute does not say anything to "potential customers".

Please note that I am not giving an opinion. I'm only stating facts.

Joseph Schembri

Sep 25th 2008, 09:59

@corinne vella: Stop reading what what is not written. I never condemned the world's oldest profession and nor its clients. There have always been prostitutes (and clients) of both sexes.

Prostitution is not illegal in Malta and it cannot and shouldn't be made illegal. I am sure that those with eyes to see do not just see the bottle blondes in Gzira but also the 'sophisticated' mistresses who live off their lovers.

For an easily accessible insight into male prostitution in Victorian England read accounts of Oscar Wilde's unfortunate trial.

john said

Sep 25th 2008, 09:08

Fact.

Is the government considering prostitution as a problem? Forget about 15 year old for the moment what about those prostitutes I see with my own eyes at Marsa? why are they still there? everyday. What are those women in Gzira with their boobs on the window sil doing there day & night? what are they waiting for? come on ist it clear they are prostitutes. Why are the authorities ignoring them? what are they afraid of? ????? ????? ?????

M Xuereb

Sep 25th 2008, 09:07

@Paul Barrett: Once we seem keen on talking figures here, may I point out that if she visited the Serb's flat twice weekly throughout that year-and-a-half, that would work out at 52 weeks x 1.5 years x 2 visits per week = 156 visits to the same client. 156 all over 2160 (your figure) = 7.22%.
In other words, presuming everyone was as regular as her Serb client - but we don't know the facts remember! - there might very well have been less than 14 clients to home in on. A far cry indeed from your figure of 2,160 clients, don't you agree?
Bottom line: While I'm all for bringing the culprits - Maltese, foreign or otherwise (this line of argument is irrelevant - to charge for their terrible misdeeds, please let's not rush to conclusions and point fingers at the authorities by bandying figures around blindly without knowing the facts.

Julia Camilleri

Sep 25th 2008, 09:01

How come everyone is making such a fuss about the Serbian, when apparently this is just one of the many ordeals that this girl has undergone? She had been unwillingly forced to engage in sexual activities with local people on a daily basis, so why shouldn't all her former clients be jailed for six months as well? And what about her mother's former girlfriend? She made this girl go through incidents similar to the one the Servian was jailed for , 4 or 5 times A DAY. In a way, it was the mother's former girlfriend who led to this incident, seeing as the man who defiled the girl was a client of the former girfriend. I hope she will be brought to justice.

Corinne Vella

Sep 25th 2008, 08:26

I. Galea: The number of crimes related to this case is exactly equal to the number of 'clients' who availed themselves of the girl's services. It's a safe bet that the perpetrators were mostly Maltese. I can't see Maltese men allowing their precious bocci clubs to be overrun by foreigners - unless they're young and female, that is.

Kenneth Cassar: If the thought ever occurred to them it would have been dismissed as irrelevant. To people of that mindset, sexual crimes are committed by women or foreigners. In this case, the victim was doubly incriminated by being both young and female.

Paul Barrett

Sep 25th 2008, 08:22

On the point of Foreigners committing more crimes than locals.
1. Foreigners committing crimes tend to be more newsworthy.
2. Foreigners have less chance of "getting away with it" as they tend to stand out and be remembered.
3. Foreigners have less "friends" willing to cover up or turn a blind eye.
Considering the quite large tourist trade, crime by foreigners is actually quite light and usually minor.
On a lighter side of this extremely serious and sad affair:
Are the VAT department investigating this case for their percentage of supplying a service.
Are the Revenue department following up for unpaid tax on the quite significant income.
What about NI contributions.

l Galea

Sep 25th 2008, 08:08

@Kenneth Cassar et al
I include and always had the intention to include all those who had anything to do in this despicable business

Joe Cordina

Sep 25th 2008, 08:07

Prostitution has been here for decades. Clients of every nationality immaginable took to the services of prostitutes being either males or females and most with little regard to age. I remember when Strait Street was rife with bars accomodating prostitutes and clients who at particular periods were mainly service personnel mostly British and American. Today prostitution per se is not a crime. Loitering for prostitution is a criminal offence and also living off the proceeds of prostitutes )Pimps).

The worst thing is the involvement of minors such as in this case and to top it all being pushed to prostitution by a trusted friend or family member. It is in this case that the law should be really tough.

Kenneth Cassar

Sep 25th 2008, 07:05

Has it not occurred to l Galea and Lee Micallef that in all probability, most of the 15 year old's clients were Maltese?

Ambrose Muscat

Sep 25th 2008, 04:38

Just for the record Serbia is not in the EU and will not be a member for a long time to come if this article is anything to go by. Yet somehow this country seems replete with such shady characters. Membership of the EU is not the culprit, I would venture to say that the criteria for entering the country need a serious rethinking. One cannot generalise, that is true, but one cannot pretend to be dumb and not admit that people from certain nationalities account for a disproportionate percentage of crimes committed on our shores.

Corinne Vella

Sep 25th 2008, 02:53

Joseph Schembri: Prostitution only exists because there are willing clients. Why are the women crticised but the clients left untouched?

Corinne Vella

Sep 25th 2008, 02:50

I. Galea: You're talking about the creeps (deliberate plural) who met the girl at their local bocci club, right? They make up the ready, willing and eager market to whom the girl's pimp sold her services.

Paul Borg

Sep 25th 2008, 01:03

Is it possible that you have all forgotten the thirteen and forteen year old girls standing on the corner of Strada Stretta up to ten years ago?

How quickly we forget in order to give these things a political or anti-foreigner slant!

l Galea

Sep 24th 2008, 20:34

Franco Farrugia
Agree that wickedness was always around, but when you consider the number of crimes committed by foreigners when compared by those committed by Maltese citizens and the number of Maltese citizens the percentage is greater for foreigners as in other countries, e.g. Italy where the majority of murders and other heinous crimes are committed by foreigners.

Before we opened our country to all and sundry we did not have the amount of crimes that are being committed now.

Milan Pajic
I did not refer simply to the person you mentioned, but to make it abundantly clear I include all the persons involved in this dirty business.

Joseph Schembri

Sep 24th 2008, 19:05

Can't agree more with Franco Farrugia. The only difference between 'then' and now is that we now have the media to feed us information. It is a well known fact that in Victorian England in London, one out of every four women was a prostitute. This was at a time when it was considered immoral to have books written by authors of different sex on the same bookshelf.

Milan Pajic

Sep 24th 2008, 18:32

Its quaint how mr. I. Galea quickly impugned the foreign man (who is by all probability 1 out of a thousand as Mr. Paul Berret mentioned) and did not mention anything about the girls own mother!

Mario Debono 2

Sep 24th 2008, 18:30

What about the lesbian friend who pushed her into prostitution????

If this guy got 6 months, she should get 600 months.

Franco Farrugia

Sep 24th 2008, 18:14

@ I Galea and E Micallef - Wickedness was always around, even during the time of my grandparents! And stop generalising.

Lee Micallef

Sep 24th 2008, 17:53

It seems that since Malta has joined the EU the place is falling apart !!
I remember not that long ago it was safe to walk the streets and crimes were generally unheard of !

William J Gatt

Sep 24th 2008, 17:45

lol...I really like how the journalist abruptly concludes the article! As we say in our mother language...."irrangawh ghal-frisk"

l Galea

Sep 24th 2008, 17:35

These are the type of people we are allowing to live in our country.

Paul Barrett

Sep 24th 2008, 17:26

So out of conservative estimate of approximately 2160 "clients" (year and a half = 540 days times 4) only one person gets identified ?

D Fenech

Sep 24th 2008, 17:16

15 years old for 25euros!!!!!!!

There is something very wrong here!!!

VERY SICK " CLIENTS"!!!!!!!