'Neglected' boy given conditional discharge
A 17-year-old boy with a history of neglect was today let off with a conditional discharge after he admitted to violently resisting the police in an incident in St Julians on Saturday night. He also admitted threatening a policewoman, tearing her trousers and slightly injuring her.
Police Inspector Nikolai Sant said the boy had been spotted by a patrol banging on shop shutters with a metal rod. When he saw the police he ran off. A policewoman tried to stop him and was pushed to the ground.
Asked by Magistrate Claire Micallef Stafrace about the case, the boy said he had not been the one who was banging on the shutters. He however admitted that he had rushed off when he saw the police. The Magistrate told the boy that the police were there to help him.
Inspector Malcolm Bondin told the court that he had known the accused since he was 12. His father had passed away and he had been neglected by his mother and grandmother. His mother was in the United States, his 18-year-old sister was in Libya, and he has no one to look after him.
He was at St Patrick's between the aged of 13 and 16, but because of demand and limited place, they had to let him go at the age of 16.
The boy used to go around to his friends to stay at their home or to get a meal and their parents then used to call the police, saying they had no place for him.
He was worried, the police inspector said, that the boy would start the wrong path.
The court took this into consideration and conditionally discharged the boy for two years.
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Thea Lynn Cesare
May 20th 2011, 09:25
YMCA ? ?
MBorg
May 31st 2010, 20:54
What a sad story, if one can call it a story, we are reading here a sad human tale. Is there no institution that can offer support to this boy ? There are various homes on the island for young immigrants, granted he is Maltese, but cant he be given a place in one of these homes ? Anything is better than living in the streets.
Alexander Morana
May 31st 2010, 20:35
What about the ARMY? They'll make a real man of him. They will look after him too. Come on, why hasn't the judge come up with some suggestions, so typical of the attitude of the higher ups. Just dumps him back on into the same society which rejected him. This is not a Charles Dickens’s Britain, we are living in. Where are the JRS when you need them? Oh I am sorry the young lad happens to be Maltese!
B.Attard
May 31st 2010, 16:25
Shame!! Shame!!! In Malta we also help the rats and forget such a guy!!!
Colette Berman
May 31st 2010, 16:18
As he is still only 17 he is still a minor in the eyes of the law. I hope that the Magistrate called in Social Workers for a case review at the very least; prima facie it would appear that there are grounds for a care order here.
....."The boy used to go around to his friends to stay at their home or to get a meal and their parents then used to call the police, saying they had no place for him." It seems that this youth would love to have a family.
A. Farrugia
May 31st 2010, 16:53
Contrary to what we usually understand the word "child" to mean, according to Maltese Law, if a child has attained his 16th birthday apparently it is Too Late to issue a Care Order, though if it were already there it could remain in force until the youngster turns 18. And I quote:
" 1.The short title of this Act is the Children and Young Persons (Care Orders) Act.
Interpretation.
2.In this Act -
"child or young person" means a person who is under the age of sixteen years; "
Colette Berman
May 31st 2010, 19:29
You are quite right, Dr. Farrugia. Chapt. 285 does define, for the purpost of that specific Act, a child to be a person under the age of 16, and therefore would make this child ineligible for protection in this form. In contrast, Chapt. 16 Sub-Title I, of Minority, describes a minor as: 157. A minor is a person of either sex who has not yet attained the age of eighteen years. and goes on to state: 158. Any minor, whose parents have died or have forfeited parental authority and who has not married, is subject to be placed under tutorship until he becomes of age or until he marries. Therefore there is an option available to the Court/Commissioner for Children for adequate provision to be made for the safe care and custody of this young person. I hope they take it.
L Bonnici
May 31st 2010, 16:10
O.k. it's a sad story ... but sadder still is the fact that neither the police nor the law courts came up with a solution to help this young kid..... I cannot see any future for this young man unless he's given immediate help!!
CA ZAMMIT
May 31st 2010, 15:46
This story bings to mind many other as sad if not worse stories I came across during 10 years of teaching, and others my friends in the counselling profession face. In Malta there are many forgotten children, amongst them kids like this lad who really have nowhere to go. Too old for orphanages, too young to be on their own.
Maybe if instead of sending millions overseas for charities, we should see about taking care of our children, our needy, our future generations. Before I am verbally stoned for sounding uncharitable... i have nothing against charity ... but doesn't the addage go 'Charity begins at home'? We CANNOT continue to expect the government to take care of everybody. If we are willing to take care of other people's children than why not our own?
lara cardona
May 31st 2010, 15:43
i think that this guy shall not be judged, i believe that he shall be helped out... so that he will have a chance for a new life . society must help people like this lad ..................... it's isn't him to blame... it's the people who never took care of him in the first place... the guy is still in time to lead a new life lets just hope that society will help him
Charles Sammut
May 31st 2010, 15:35
Pity he is not an illegal immigrant.
He would be given food, shelter, internet, mobile phone, free water & electricity, pocket money and be able to work without having to register with ETC.
N.Calleja
May 31st 2010, 15:31
What a pathetic story. When one considers the many pleas to help an abandoned dog or cat, isn't there anyone to support this young lad that is litterally going to the dogs as he has no one to lean on.
L. Dimech
May 31st 2010, 15:25
How immensely sad to read something like this. It's true that nobody can judge, but how can someone abandon his son like this? Would it be a question of first letting kids do what they want and then not being able to control them, so they're left to their own luck?
How does this boy eat, wash, dress, live? How can we leave him in the streets when it could be that some kindness could very well turn his life around?
Is there any shelter, institute or whatever, who could help him, and with all due respects, couldn't the judge, with all his powers, help him out and address him to a shelter which could slowly restore his dignity. Left on his own, this boy has probably very few chances of not turning into a hardened criminal, just because he needs to survive.
David Buttigieg
May 31st 2010, 13:59
And now what? What is being done to help this boy?
Society has a share in the blame!
Jesmond Micallef
May 31st 2010, 13:53
Seems as if the elements were up against this17-year-old here. No father, mother far away in the USA, from where does he get love and emotional support ? No wonder he reacts the way he does ?.............another sad story of a young fellow human being going to waste...............!!!
victor vella
May 31st 2010, 13:47
Couldnt the court help the lad by asking the authorities to provide him with a shelter and food?I am certain that with help he wpould turn out to be a civilised person.