A court ruling earlier this week sent a message to men who attack their girlfriend in public, they can get away with it if they intimidate their victim into not pressing charges, according to a women’s organisation.
“We know victims can be reduced to submission... through such decisions we are telling the aggressor to intimidate their victim into not reporting them,” said Renee Laiviera, who chairs the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations.
On Wednesday, a man was cleared of assaulting a woman in the street because she dropped charges against him.
A video of the incident, taken by a Bulgarian student at about 2.30 a.m. on January 8 and posted on YouTube, showed Emanuel Sammut, in a drunken, enraged state gripping the woman by what appears to be her blouse and punching her. At one point he threw her to the ground after slamming her against a car in the middle of the road and grabbed her once again to the sound of her terrified screams and his profanity.
Mr Sammut was cleared of all charges directly related to the woman, his girlfriend at the time. These charges included assaulting, threatening and pushing her.
He was found guilty of breaching the peace, offending public morals and being drunk in public and was fined €175.
Although Mr Sammut and the woman were a couple at the time of the attack, Magistrate Antonio Mizzi could not treat the matter as a case of domestic violence , which would have meant the police could prosecute irrespective of the victim’s decision to drop charges.
Domestic violence, legally speaking, refers to an act committed against a household member. The law goes on to list who constitutes a household member and does not include people who are dating, unless they lived together for a year before the offence. Household members include people who are or were married, had a child together and were related or lived together, among other situations.
Magistrate Mizzi had to treat the matter as a contravention under the Criminal Code and, in this case, the law lays down that when it comes to the specific charges filed against Mr Sammut vis-a-vis the woman, “no proceedings shall be instituted except on the complaint of the injured party”.
Reacting to this, Dr Laiviera said it did not make sense that a person who beat up someone in the street could get away with it. “The law has to be seen as supporting victims,” she said, adding it was time to review the legal definition of what constituted a household member to ensure more women were protected.
Roberta Leprè, from Victim Support Malta, agreed the definition should be reviewed. However, she said, this did not necessarily mean all types of relationships be included, since parameters were important.
She was worried victims were not recurring to the courts enough for protection, which suggested they feared or were disheartened by the system.
A study, released last year, on the prevalence of domestic violence in Malta showed that a quarter of women were physically, emotionally or sexually abused by their husband or partner.
It also showed that 11 per cent had contemplated suicide and some actually tried to take their lives. More than half of the abused women never sought help. Of those who did, about a quarter went to the police.