There has to be an overhaul in the way the courts deal with sexual abuse, a number of experts have warned.

Family lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic, who runs the Women’s Rights Foundation, termed the way sexual abuse cases were being handled by certain members of the judiciary as “a disgrace”.

She said a magistrate recently insisted that an alleged victim of rape be interrogated viva voce and not through video conferencing because he wanted to “look into her eyes”. The option of video, the lawyer pointed out, would still have entailed the magistrate sitting right beside the witness.

“Sexual abuse carries with it so much shame. The victim would already have needed to recount her story for the umpteenth time in front of others. Now she was also forced to do that in front of an aggressor,” Dr Dimitrijevic said.

Recently, this newspaper carried an interview with a child abuse victim who called for sex crimes against minors not to be time-barred and for the prescription period to come into effect, at minimum, when the abused party turns 18.

As the law stands, the defilement of minors becomes time-barred after five years, meaning that no criminal action can be taken if the case is reported more than five years after it took place. The rape of minors is time-barred after 15 years.

But here, defilement means having the perpetrator show the minor something new

For cases of participation in sexual activity with a minor, as opposed to forced sexual activity – for example, intercourse for which the minor gave his/her ‘consent’ – the 10-year prescription period is suspended until the victim turns 18.

“I fully agree, prescription periods for child abuse cases should come into effect when the victim turns 18. It is very hard for a child or a teenager to speak up given elements such as family pressure and the intense sense of shame,” Dr Dimitrijevic said.

A lawyer, who preferred to speak anonymously, similarly lambasted the judiciary and called for more training. “Proceedings can be very traumatic for the victim. Abroad, all that needs to be proven in court in a child abuse case is the age of the perpetrator and the crime. But here, defilement means having the perpetrator show the minor something ‘new’.

“Minors are therefore asked invasive questions into their sexual history. Sex abuse victims in general are often also asked by the defence (permitted by the court) about how short their skirts were while tests are conducted to determine their blood alcohol levels, as if these, in any way, reduce the seriousness of the crime.”

Members of the judiciary often also seemed to point towards the fact that lack of any indications denoting violence meant the act was consensual.

“People lacking training may believe that the response to danger is ‘fight or flight’. In reality, the most common instinct is to freeze,” the lawyer said.

Moreover, rape victims in Malta had to go through the extremely traumatic procedure of being examined twice, once by a gynaecologist and then by a forensic expert.

Within hours of filing a police report, a rape victim would be surrounded by nurses, doctors and police officers for a medical examination to be conducted and photographs taken.

“You need to be in a very good place, mentally, to file a police report. That is why it is important that, in the case of minors, the prescription period should come into effect once the person turns 18,” the lawyer said.

“I’ve even had a case where the minor didn’t know she was being abused. She was always taught that her ‘private parts’ constituted the parts of her body covered by underwear and did not realise that the breasts were intimate areas as well.”

Victim Support Malta pointed to the fact that article 58 of the Istanbul Convention laid down that: “parties shall take the necessary legislative and other measures to ensure that the statute of limitation for initiating any legal proceedings... shall continue for a period of time that is sufficient and commensurate with the gravity of the offence in question, to allow for the efficient initiation of proceedings after the victim has reached the age of majority.”

Malta ratified the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention) two years ago but has not implemented it yet.