Victim support group hits out at recent domestic violence case ruling

A victim support organisation has criticised a court decision to drop a case of domestic violence because of the woman’s refusal to testify.

The court could have used its discretion to determine whether to continue with the case, based on other evidence, even though the victim decided not to take the witness stand, lawyer Roberta Lepré, director of Victim Support Malta, said.

She was commenting on the case of a man who, on Thursday, was cleared of breaking his wife’s nose by repeatedly slamming her head against a wall after a court abstained from going on with the case because the alleged victim chose not to testify.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that the woman had effectively withdrawn the formal report against her husband when she chose not to testify, as she had the right to do, and so decided to stop hearing the case.

The police had produced CCTV footage of the incident that took place in the office of the couple’s St Paul’s Bay bar.

A medical report of the victim’s injuries had also been exhibited in court.

Moreover, the man had admitted to the police that he had lost his temper because the woman had thrown a bunch of keys at him during an argument.

“It’s questionable whether the fact that the victim did not testify was tantamount to requesting the court to stay the proceedings,” Dr Lepré said when contacted.

The case dated back to August 2006, that is, after the Domestic Violence Act came into force earlier that year empowering the police to start court proceedings on domestic violence without the victim having to file a report. Previously, the victim had first to file a police report for the case to go to court.

Dr Lepré pointed out that the law gave discretion to the court to continue hearing cases after a victim withdrew a complaint. In fact, she added, the law was changed precisely because legislators felt that the burden of legal procedures should be taken off the victims’ shoulders both because of the awkward position they were placed in and also for fear of reprisals.

Domestic violence also made the headlines last month when an EU-wide study showed that nearly a third of Maltese were aware of family members or acquaintances who suffered domestic violence and one in five even knew of a perpetrator in their circle of friends.

The survey further revealed that a staggering 79 per cent of Maltese respondents said many times women “provoke” abuse against them.

A spokesman for the social agency Appoġġ said the statistics indicated that Maltese society was far from having adopted a zero tolerance towards domestic violence and that the root causes of the problem were still not understood by many.

“It is also worrying because it conveys an attitude of blaming the victim and this can lead to the system re-victimising the victims. The fear of being blamed for the violence and, therefore, not being believed, is precisely one of the main reasons why victims do not speak out at an early stage of the abuse,” the Appoġġ spokesman said.

Similarly, Joanna Xuereb, who chairs the Commission on Domestic Violence, said the survey results showed that socio-cultural attitudes still condoned domestic violence. “This is one of the main causes of domestic violence. This reflects the macho mentality that still dominates this country in the sense that men still think it is within their rights... to use aggression against women,” she said.