Sunday, 28th December 2008
Rape girl's family in the dark over investigations
The police have instructed the family of the Nadur girl at the centre of rape allegations not to speak to the press, and have not acted on the family's claims that they were offered payment not to proceed with the court case, sources say.
Key witnesses have still not been interviewed three months after police said they were investigating claims that a lawyer and middlemen tried to buy the silence of the 14-year-old girl's family.
Early in October, police said investigations into the claims had been launched as soon as they were raised. But sources close to the family last month had said nobody of the main witnesses had been interviewed.
Shortly after their comments appeared in The Sunday Times on November 23, a police inspector told the family not to speak to the press. However, since then, according to the sources, none of the key witnesses were interviewed, and neither were the lawyers involved interviewed in connection with the claims.
Police were again asked to give an official update on the investigation during the past week but no response was forthcoming by the time the newspaper went to print.
The underhand move to approach the family was revealed by The Sunday Times shortly after four men were charged with offences related to the rape of the girl.
Brothers Peter Paul and Josef Said were accused of raping the 14-year-old, while Mark Lorry Said and Peter Paul Debono were charged with her defilement. They are all under house arrest.
The girl's mother had said a lawyer and close relatives of her daughter's alleged aggressors persuaded her family to sign a contract stating they would not testify in court in return for €7,000 in "psychological support" and a €23,000 guarantee pledging that the accused would not approach the girl.
The mother said she had signed the contract under intense pressure from the group, which included relatives of the Said brothers and a priest who acted as an intermediary, and out of fear of exposing the issue to the Gozitan community.
However, she regretted it immediately and together with her daughter, forged ahead with the complaint.
On the day the men were charged, the girl's mother said another approach was made, this time by two different lawyers (one from Gozo and another from Malta) who said they wanted to "see if they could come to an arrangement" over the men's arraignment.
The woman immediately called a family acquaintance and the men left.
The issue was raised in Parliament last month by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo who asked Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici to reveal the lawyers' names and whether any action would be taken over the family's claims.
The minister did not comment, saying there were pending court proceedings. The claims of interference were also raised by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano in a judgment imposing stricter bail conditions on the accused on October 9.
The Chief Justice said there seemed to have been "manoeuvres" by people who had an interest to see the case does not reach the courts.
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Comments
Then the police? Do they have the right to make pressure to the mother not to speak to the press? Isn't this a communist way? why?
Tony Cassar & J. Scembri: it seems that your thinking is driven by a political colour since it hurts your feelings. Would you settle out of court if it was your daughter? If yes, it means that you value money more than your own daughter. Moreover, these aggressors should be arraigned and given the appropriate punishment to deter them (supposedly) from doing the same act to others.
Precisely so sir.... and those laws have been broken so that is why there can be no out-of-court settlement. This is a criminal matter and out-of-court settlements are reserved for civil cases. It's time to have a re-think, my friend.
An alleged rape is an alleged crime and crimes are only settled in a Criminal Court. An out of court settlement can be made after and if the alleged perpetrators are comdemned in Court. This could save the injured party from recurring to a Civil Court to seek for damages. Therefore, in my opinion the alleged perpetrators or their representatives should have refrained from approaching the alleged victim's family offering a form of compensation.
@Mr. Schembri
If it was your daughter, would you like to see the perpetuators of the crime rapped over the knuckles, told that they were naughty boys and would have to forfeit their pocket money for the next few weeks and that they really shouldn't do anything like that again, and if they do they shouldn't be caught?!
No, these guys deserve to be punished, especially as they tried to 'buy' their innocence!
To those of you who will reply and speak of 'justice' remember that what we have in this world are 'Courts of Law which have nothing to do with 'Courts of Justice' as we sometimes mistakingly call them.
I think that the press should stick to its role and stop trying to dictate the tempo of investigations to our law enforcement agencies.
I also perfectly agree with the police inspector which told the family not to talk to the press about this case. The reason for this is obvious because we have already seen a case wherein the two defendants went to great lengths to delay court proceedings on the basis that their fundamental right for a fair trial had been compromised by the press giving too much prominence to their case before their trial started. One of these high profile defendants has still not stood trial!
The police should bring these four to trial so that if convicted, they can go to prison rather than languish under so-called house arrest. Who supervises this anyway?
Remember, this is a protected (by law) innocent fourteen-year-old who has allegedly been gang-raped.
And as for the police inspector asking the family not to contact the press ... may I ask why? To what purpose? Was this police officer within his line of duty to speak to the family like that?
This case is a very 'interesting' one. One wonders.