Girl, 15, pleads not guilty to attempted murder of 14-year-old

Mr Aaron Vella

May 14th 2011, 13:33

If the 14 year old victim was my daughter, Franco Debono would be defending me.

Mr Oscar Smith

May 14th 2011, 05:23

What Do you expect?
Killing and Give you freedom?

Mr R Rizzo

May 14th 2011, 00:27

So we come to this point where there is no more line of what's right or wrong and every case we find some excuse to cloak a criminal with the hide of a victim. I happen to know the victim and she's a very positive and mature person for her age, involving herself into sports and social activities. Who would like to end up stabbed in the back - literally - just because you meet someone who happen to be an ex of someone with lack of social morality?

Society demands a boot camp for these youth with such problems... if they want to be part of society they have to integrate and follow the rules. Our laws have been stretched beyond imagination irrelevant whether it's because lawyers have become outstanding or because the system is allowing more loopholes.

Allowing three poor girls helping their mummy to be granted bail after attempting a 1st degree murder is laughable. We can all go out of our houses well armed and blame fear, couldn't we? What's more is that a knife can be concealed as to deceive people easily unlike carrying a hammer or a crowbar which can be noticed from a mile away.

I have trained martial arts and know what's self defence and what's a premeditated assault. If this girl carried a knife, and was accompanied by two other people, it shows she was already prepared to fight unlike the victim who happened to be on "foreign grounds" being from Zrebbug and all by herself. I publicly question Dr Herrera's intelligence as to whether stabbing someone in the back can ever be considered a self defence? It's a cowardly action, and I hope Dr Herrera has some decent social morality behind the ruthless lawyer's mask because this is not just about money of making a good name... but about an individual's life that has been put in threat, which if lost can never bring again.

As to what Dr Franco Debono said, let's agree that these three poor girls might not have had the best upbringing they could have wished for. A lot of things can be done to help people in this situation, there is YMCA who help a lot of youth, however from personal experience youngsters, especially in the harbour areas prefer organising clans, most of them ending up as criminals from young age, but let's stop here and move at a tangent. What about this playboy boyfriend who first impregnates this 15 year old, then goes out with this 14 year old victim. Do the police have his identity and if he's over 18, are they going to prosecute him for defiling multiple of minors? Or aren't our laws for everyone? And why don't they follow this 15 year old stabber into giving birth with an "unknown father" to reap money from our taxes because the government permits it.

Ms F Goodwin

May 13th 2011, 22:17

"Attacked by an Arab" - REALLY?

Times of Malta, your racist agenda is showing again. I don't care if she said it herself, she's an ignorant child, but you are supposed to be a reputable news source.

She had previously been attacked would probably do. Whatever the ethnicity of the (probably fictional) person who supposedly attacked her, the defence is simply that she claims she was attacked and was therefore afraid enough to carry a weapon. Is the "Arab" relevant to this story? Except of course in so far as you've found you always attract more readers to your pages when you play the race card?

Mr Denis Pace

May 13th 2011, 21:26

Social difficulties should not be mixed up with Moral character.

Mr G Mangion

May 13th 2011, 17:56

Ms Pauline Busuttil

Hu inti possibli ma tafx li il Gvern ghandu social workers li jahdmu fuq kasi bhal dawn ?

Pero naqbel li dawn is - social workers ghandom Ikunu Aktar efficjenti f' Xogholhom u ma jiddejqux jaghmlu xogholhom sew u bla Biza ta hadd, jekk iridu li naqsu min dawn it - Tragedji, Il - Gvern tal Gurnata ghandu Jaghti Poteri aktar lis - social workers ghax f' hafna Kazi tant isiru jafu l' xulxin li jigu .....

Mr Peter Korsten

May 13th 2011, 17:48

Something tells me that the all the indignant comments below come from people who live in considerably better neighbourhoods than any of the four girls in this story.

Ms Pauline Busuttil

May 13th 2011, 16:45

Il Gvern missu jaf b'dawn il kazijiet. Ghax ma jibghatx ghas-social workers li jahdmu fuq kasi gol Belt Valletta u jara il-kasi serji li hemm.
Il gvern irrid jaghmel hafna izjed minn dak li qed jaghmel u jekk ikun hemm bzonn dawn it-tfal ippoggijhom go home fejn ikun hemm nies li jkunu jistaw jghejnuhom.
nisperaw li ma nergawx nisimaw iktar bhal dan il-kas

Deo Catania

May 13th 2011, 14:51

Alla jbierek hadd ma jati kas dawn il-problemi f'dal-pajjiz, basta johorgu xeba qaddisin kontra d-divorzju, mid-dehra Kristu fuq divorzju biss kien tkellem ghax huma fuq hekk biss jitkelmu. Jekk minghalihom li f'Malta hawn biss familji perfetti bhal ma wrew fuq il-billboards sejrin zball ta u hafna familji (jekk tista issejhilhom hekk) ghalkemm ma humiex mifrudin xorta ghandhom inkwiet kbir, kemm bejn il-genituri kif ukoll ma' l-ulied pero l-aqwa li jghidu le ghad-divorzju, mill-bqija ma jinteressahomx.

Mr daniel lanzon

May 13th 2011, 14:35

mmm f dan il pajjiz vera bla sens tfal bi problemi socjali jithalew jigfu abbandunati minghar familja nghid prosett hafna lil magistrat Anthony micallef trigona talli tahom ic cans li forsi jibdlu hajjitom niespera li l-qorti tghin f din il kwistjoni ma nipqawx ileterati fuq fejn jithlu tfal taht l eta

thanks

Mrs J. F. Grech

May 13th 2011, 14:31

Am I missing something? These girls have allegedly attempted to murder someone and they are not being place into a secure custody situation? The judge may not think they are a threat but they will have no idea of the gravity of what they have allegedly done. They need to feel some level of the seriousness of their alleged actions and going home under curfew is a mockery. This is just a taste of what is to come in Malta if proper interventions in social situations are not taken - and proper consequences to behavior not applied.

Ms maria aquilina

May 13th 2011, 14:18

Poor girls. I wonder what the future holds for them.Let us pray for all of them.

Mr Joseph Aquilina

May 13th 2011, 14:01

“Dr Herrera […] told the court there were serious social problems involving all three girls.”
In light of this, shouldn’t a responsible State take custody of the unborn child (once born) so that to avoid having this child grown up in a similar social environment? Or – as always – the not so responsible state will pump money to the mother (under one pretext or another) and ignore the potential problem!

Mr Joe Cordina

May 13th 2011, 13:47

So tragic at a tender age

Mr M Farrugia

May 13th 2011, 13:33

l l-avukat stess dawn iz-zaghzagh gejja minn ambjent fejn kien hemm u nikkwota "there were serious social problems involving all three girls.So deep rooted were these social problems that the 14-year-old girl's father had been a murder victim." Hemm bzonn li l-istat fejn hemm problemi bhal dawn jkompli jahdem sabiex itejjeb il-facilitajiet ezistenti sabiex jigu mejjuna. Insab aktar cert li la il-ligi tad-divrozju u lanqas dik tal-ko abitazzjoni mhux sejra isolvu dawn il-problemi, anzi ikabbruhom. Dawn iz-zaghzagh li jkunu gejja minn dan l-ambjent ghandhom bzonn ghajnuna kbira u mhux il-vot ta sittax il-sena.