Proposed offenders’ register welcomed

The Bill proposing the setting up of an offenders’ register for crimes against children has been welcomed by organisations that deal with abuse but parents have been reminded of their own responsibility to protect children.

While praising the introduction of employee and volunteer screening before engaging them with minors, the national social work agency Appoġġ highlighted the parents’ duty to get to know their children and friends well and to be careful who to trust them with.

“Parents also have the role of educating them about abuse and the importance of talking about their concerns while providing safety tips.” It was also important children were taught how to be assertive and say no, the agency pointed out. Apart from physical and sexual abuse, parents should consider the risks of online abuse and must be on the look-out for signs and symptoms.

Appoġġ said both victims and perpetrators should have access to specialised therapeutic programmes. And in order to minimise the risk of future offences, they should be monitored during their court sentence and when reintegrating into the community.

Under the new law, heads of organisations entrusted with the well-being of children, including Church entities, would have to report abuse allegations involving minors to the police. The Bill was presented by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and published in the Government Gazette this week.

Anybody found guilty of such crimes and listed on the register would not be allowed to work with children. The new law also stipulates how long each person found guilty would be listed, depending on the crime. Victim Support Malta, an NGO that supports victims of crime, said the law should be followed up by the implementation of guidelines which could include a non-exhaustive list of the institutions and companies obliged to report a crime and check whether employees are listed on the register.

“Professionals should also be consulted to ensure a person’s name is only erased from the register if there is hardly any risk of reoffending,” added Victim Support director Roberta Leprè.

Dr Leprè considers positive the mandatory requirement to report abuse to the police. But she said the police had to be well equipped scientifically and in terms of human resources to gather evidence required for a successful prosecution.

A lacuna of the Bill was that, once found guilty, it did not envisage the possibility of the offender being referred to treatment as in cases of domestic violence.

The organisation is also against the fact that names of offenders found guilty prior to the implementation of the law would not be included in the register.

The Maltese Association of Social Workers too favours the register but with a number of provisos. It argues that social workers – the “front liners” in child protection – should be consulted over its setting up.

The register should be used to prevent, protect and rehabilitate, especially since perpetrators were often family members. The register alone, however, would not solve the problem, association president Anthea Agius said, highlighting the need for more effective services – not just campaigns – for the prevention of abuse in at-risk families.

Lawrence Grech, who says he was abused as a child at the hands of priests, said he was “100 per cent satisfied” with the introduction of the offenders’ register, saying his own story was instrumental in spurring the government to get the Bill it had been contemplating off the ground.

The register was particularly important to him because, had it existed in the 1980s, one of his alleged abusers would not have been able to leave Canada, where he had committed similar crimes, and end up at St Joseph’s Home in St Venera, where he carried on.

“I wonder if the Church would reveal its several pending cases and hidden secrets,” he said, questioning whether it would report these to the police.

The law should come into force by January 1, depending on the work still pending before Parliament.