Offenders should be registered

I cannot understand why the courts did not make use of the child offenders’ register – “a very good instrument” made available to them to protect children, as the former Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said.

But then, why was this decision left at the discretion of the judges and magistrates, and not obliging them to put all the names of those found guilty on this register?

How can the children be protected effectively if the courts stop at registering the abusers?

At least now we have a magistrate who started the ball rolling and added the first name to the child offenders’ register. Others should emulate her.

As the Victim Support Malta organisation said, judges and magistrates should be provided with guidelines on how to list people on the child offenders’ register to ensure it is implemented consistently. But I go one further: the law should be amended so that the courts shall have to register the offenders and not leave it at their discretion.