Claudia Calleja
Children's Commissioner working on paedophile register
The Children's Commissioner has initiated a process which should eventually lead to the introduction of a paedophile register, although no definitive timeframes are in place yet.
The Commissioner, Carmen Zammit said yesterday that her office started consultations with the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children after her proposal to start working on the paedophile register was approved by the Social Policy Minister last May.
Once the office receives feedback from the different countries which form part of the network, a panel of local experts from different professional fields connected to child welfare will convene at the beginning of the year, "at the latest" to start discussing the technicalities. They will look into the best manner of introducing the register in a small society like Malta, Mrs Zammit said.
However, she was not in a position to say when the register would be in place because of "possible complications" that may be flagged up during meetings.
The idea of introducing a sex offenders' register was raised in mid-2006 following a controversy involving the Malta Football Association, which retained a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman in Paola at a ground that at the time doubled as a playing field for a nearby school.
The issue keeps re-emerging following convictions related to paedophilia, as was the recent case of a 61-year-old man found guilty of raping his partner's 10-year-old daughter.
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e.bartolo
Oct 23rd 2008, 08:21
And, why not, COLD BLOODED HOMICIDES, especially on the ELDERLY. After all, not only children have the right for protection! Old people are as vulnerable as children, if not, even more.
deb bugeja
Oct 22nd 2008, 17:27
The sooner they do it the better. and I hope that includes everyone who does the crime even those who the church is trying to hide.
leo bartolo
Oct 22nd 2008, 16:30
It is a start, however I can never understand all this 'red tape' to introduce a paedophile register. At least a provision should be made to include those offenders who are found guilty between now and the official introduction of the register . Next step, the introduction of a register for the perpetrators of domestic violence.
g. scerri
Oct 22nd 2008, 13:49
Mrs. Zammit, when faced with the professional and political rhetoric you are bound to come across, and which is already making you sound far too cautious, just think of the children whose lives have been blighted for keeps. Just keep thinking of the children and ignore anything else.
Carmelo Aquilina
Oct 22nd 2008, 10:27
Will the Church be obliged to report cases to the police so that even priests can be on the register ? At the moment the Church can keep cases secret even when its own team feel that a crime has happened. This happens in no other major Western country !