No charges will be brought against the lawyers or any other intermediary involved in the attempts to buy the silence of the family of a 14-year-old Nadur girl at the centre of rape allegations.

In a curt letter sent to The Sunday Times responding to an article published last November, police said they had investigated the case and found no "breaches of the law".

However, the family insist that neither they, nor other key witnesses, have ever been interviewed by police over claims that at least two attempts were made to persuade them not to pursue the case.

When contacted yesterday, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, who has put forward parliamentary questions about the case in recent months, was scathing about the police's decision.

"I think the law is being used to protect those who are strong and powerful rather than those who are weak and vulnerable. It continues to protect the culture of omertá (code of silence) we have in our country."

However, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici declined to comment for fear of prejudicing the rape case itself.

"As you are aware, these allegations are closely linked to the case of the alleged defilement of a girl in Nadur. The latter case is still sub judice and it would be improper to comment on this matter," he said.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the ministry hoped that any offences related to this case that were exposed during the course of the court proceedings would be pursued by relevant authorities "to the fullest extent allowed".

The Sunday Times had revealed the approach on the girl's family last September and reported the victim's mother saying that a lawyer, close relatives of the accused, and a priest who acted as an intermediary, had persuaded her to sign a contract stating that members of her family would not take the matter to court in return for €7,000 in "psychological support".

Of the four defendants, brothers Peter Paul and Josef Said were accused of raping the girl, while Mark Lorry Said and Peter Paul Debono were charged with her defilement. They are all under house arrest.

The family eventually pressed ahead in spite of the contract but on the day the men were due to be arraigned, 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". The woman immediately called a family acquaintance and the men left.

The woman said she told the investigating police inspector about the contract and the second attempt to stop the claims from reaching the courts.

However, the family maintains that over the past months during which the investigations were going on, neither they, nor other key witnesses who could corroborate their version of the facts, were ever interviewed.

The police were asked to confirm or deny this claim and to say whether they had reviewed the document referred to by the family, but their only response was to say that police reports are not public documents.

One lawyer who spoke to The Sunday Times said it was not necessarily illegal for the defendants to reach an agreement with the victim in which she, or her guardians, agreed not to file a complaint. But it would be illegal for an agreement to bar the girl from taking the witness stand.

"That is from a legal standpoint; obviously, from an ethical point of view it's a different matter altogether... even approaching the victim's family without them being assisted by a lawyer is questionable," he said.

The family do not have a copy of the contract as they were never given one, but the second approach by the two lawyers, according to the family, was made when their clients were about to be arraigned.

The issue of interference was raised by Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano in a judgment last October through which he imposed stricter bail conditions on the defendants.

The Chief Justice said that there seemed to have been "manoeuvres by people who had an interest to see that the case does not reach the courts. It seems that, before the accused were charged in court, money changed hands in order for there to be withdrawal of the complaint (in respect of the accused bearing the Said surname)".

Mr Bartolo said: "I'm no legal expert, but surely the police must have taken note of the comments made by the Chief Justice."

"From an ethical standpoint I am very disappointed... There are a number of areas where rather than change the law to deal with certain situations which we know are taking place in our society, we use the law to hide them. It's symptomatic of a sick society," he said.

In parliament, Mr Bartolo had asked the Home Affairs Minister last November to reveal the lawyers' names and whether any action would be taken over the family's claims.

The minister did not comment then either, saying there were pending court proceedings.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com