Erin Stuart Tanti and Lisa Maria Zahra. A modern-day Shakespearean double tragedy, love story and psychological drama which runs the gamut from the macabre to the surreal.
Two families, not previously rivalled, drawn together by force majeure, torn apart by misfortune, circumstance and the follies, trials and challenges of youth. Each with its own dysfunctionalities, remorse and things they would undoubtedly do differently, if only.
Two troubled souls in a covert relationship vaguely reminiscent of Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal. Not the first nor the last of its kind, and certainly not deserving of such a tragic, futile and unnecessary ending.
The accused – Tanti, 23, teacher, who now faces murder and assisted suicide charges, among others. A nihilistic narcissist, clearly in the throes of post-adolescent idealism, recently estranged from his father in the aftermath of his parental separation. His internet ramblings portray him as deliberately dark, callous, shock seeking.
The victim – Zahra, 15, his student and lover, with her fair share of demons. A girl who grew up without a mother and who therefore required an even greater dose of love to compensate for this gaping absence. A manifestly disturbed teenager who seemed to have everything money could buy, but who was desperately looking for love, affection and attention in all the wrong places.
A maid and confidante she seemed to have an ally in, like Juliet before her.
A handyman who made a telephone call which set in motion a chain of events, the likes of which Malta has never seen before.
The very carefully constructed, media-perfect, US-style victim statement, issued minutes after Tanti was arraigned – in what was a totally unprecedented move for Malta – set the tone and changed the landscape of the criminal process as we once knew it, taking the case out of the courtroom and into the media realm. Many now feel competent to dangerously speculate as to what occurred on that fateful night.
Although one person is on trial, it is my belief that there were a number of factors at play and that this was a disaster waiting to happen. I’m quite sure that whoever has touched or rubbed shoulders with this story, even fleetingly, will always shoulder some remorse, though no one will admit it more readily than Tanti.
That on being exposed as lovers, both Tanti and Zahra imagined that suicide was a way out is a tragedy of itself and a lesson to parents everywhere, who frequently underestimate the vulnerability and fragility of their children.
Although the underage sexual imbroglio and abuse of his position of trust leave much to be desired in Tanti, I find myself increasingly wondering whether he deliberately projected a more sinister image of himself than was necessarily true, especially in his writings on social network sites, which he ventilated with abandon.
The same can be said of Zahra whose network postings are equally dark and distasteful and who was able to conduct an illicit relationship under her father’s roof for a few months, undetected. Still, she wasn’t the teacher, so however unsavoury, she had no obligation to lead by example.
The writing (and much more) has now come back to haunt Tanti, and this is another lesson for our children. We are living in an age where you are what you write. It will be used against you. Being deliberately ominous, twisted and contrary is never wise.
Many think that a teaching warrant would have made all the difference and have blamed the school for hiring Tanti without one. I don’t believe it would have made a difference either way. Tanti was unsuited for a teaching position. He may well have been brilliant at his craft, but teaching requires something more – certainly more than any warrant can guarantee.
It necessitates a role model sensibleness, a pragmatic approach to problem solving, a cool head, a sense of equilibrium and discernment. Everything Tanti was not. His Facebook account might have proved a more useful gauge of his eligibility, which is another lesson to employers out there. With people spilling their guts all over the place, zooming in what makes someone tick has never been easier.
Had the incident occurred during school hours, the school would have had a lot of answering to do. As is, I find the argument a little shoe-horned. It’s hard to say who was the more unstable of the two. I do believe that Tanti and Zahra acted as toxic reciprocal force multipliers to each others’ instability.
The very carefully constructed, media-perfect, US-style victim statement, set the tone and changed the landscape of the criminal process as we once knew it
While 23 might appear much older than 15 (in the way 17-25 does not), Tanti was still evidently hungover from his adolescent years, while Zahra was undoubtedly well ahead of hers, as girls usually are. A well-documented fact.
That’s another thing about those first transition years to young adulthood. You’re only a few years older than you were when you were underage. Overnight, you’re driving, drinking, making money.
You may have flown the coop, got your own place and are no longer subject to parental authority. You’re suddenly intoxicated by all this freedom and you’re more exposed and in many ways just as vulnerable as you were when you were a minor.
That doesn’t exonerate him and however distressed, disorientated and desperate, on being exposed, he ought to have been big enough to face the music or leave her out of the equation altogether. If you’re going to do grown-up things, behave like a grown-up.
And while I don’t subscribe to any sentimental notion about the automatic innocence of everyone under the arbitrarily imposed age of 16, their reactions on being exposed, intimate that they both knew what they were doing was wrong. And no one more than Tanti.
The worst possible outcome for Tanti has come to pass. Zahra is gone and he has survived to face the wrath and speculation he so feared and a murder trial to boot.
As far as I’m concerned, staying alive has never looked so unattractive, bleak and dreadful.
michelaspiteri@gmail.com