Educators, employers and organisations entrusted with the care of children ought to be given an easier way to check if a prospective recruit is on the sex offenders’ register, according to the Malta Union of Teachers and the Lisa Maria Foundation.

Both organisations have long insisted that changes to the law are necessary for this to happen.

The Malta Union of Teachers and the Lisa Maria Foundation want educators, employers and organisations entrusted with the care of children to be given easier access to the sex offenders’ register. Photo: Shutterstock

Their calls are backed by lawyers who explained to The Sunday Times of Malta the cumbersome process that educators, employers and organisations responsible for children’s wellbeing have to go through to ensure that any member of staff who comes into contact with children in their care is not a predator.

For an employer or an organisation to check whether a name features on the list, they must first go to their lawyer, who files an application before the First Hall of the Civil Court, as it is the Registrar of the Civil Court who manages the sex offenders’ list.

The application is also sent to the Attorney General who has seven days to reply to the request. The application and reply are seen by a judge who appoints a hearing at which the parties make submissions detailing the names of the person or people they want to check.

If permission is granted, the judge orders the Court Registrar to check the register for the supplied name or names and informs the applicants of the outcome of the search.

“This process is long and could take several weeks, allowing the possibility for someone who is in contact with children to abuse of his or her position to satisfy their sexual whims,” said one of several lawyers who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity.

The teachers’ union is suggesting that a proposed teaching council should be responsible for issuing warrants for teachers and other education professionals, and should have access to the Sex Offenders’ Register.

A spokesman for the Lisa Maria Foundation, set up two years ago with the aim of helping to safeguard the young, agreed that the system as it stands is too cumbersome.

It is “ludicrous”, he added, to expect an offender to inform a potential employer that he/she is on the register, as the law requires.

“The foundation believes that the system is too cumbersome to be effective. It seems like we are more interested in protecting the rights of those who have committed a serious crime and ended up with their name of the Sex Offenders Register than we are in protecting other innocent people, especially children, from potential harm from these offenders.”

The foundation believes that the system is too cumbersome to be effective

Since its inception, the foundation has been lobbying for a number of changes to be made to the way people who work with children are screened, recruited and monitored during their respective term in employment.

The spokesman criticised the fact that the onus is on the paedophile to inform his employer that his name appears on the list. He said it “stood to reason” that anyone on the register would try and hide this fact from a potential employer.

“The Lisa Maria Foundation believes that the Sex Offenders’ Register, most especially where crimes concerning children are concerned, should be easily and freely accessible to all employers to be able to run an adequate check on people they are employing as part of a proper due diligence process in seeking to employ reliable and responsible people.

“Where employment of people who will have a duty of care towards children is concerned, this is critically important. The foundation believes that it is time to move the balance away from protecting the perpetrators to protecting our children in such cases.”

However, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici does not view the process as a lengthy one, saying the government and Commission for the Administration of Justice would investigate any undue delay.

On whether to make the register more publicly available, Dr Bonnici said when contacted that this could give rise to other legal repercussions so such a proposal would need to be discussed and analysed in detail.

What does the law state?

· It is the courts that decide whether or not to divulge information included in the register to people responsible for children. However, employers and those responsible for any organisations that are involved with minors are required to be proactive in their approach to the register.

· They are legally obliged to request that the register be checked to ascertain whether or not a person they wish to employ is on the register.

· If an organisation employs a listed individual without first having the register checked, that individual’s employment will have to be terminated immediately and the person responsible for the employment faces a jail term of between three months and four years and/or a fine of between €2,500 and €50,000.

· The law places the onus on the person who has just been convicted of a crime to inform the Court Registrar, within three days, that his name appears on the register. Otherwise, he faces a punishment of imprisonment from three months to four years or to a fine of between €100 and €1,000 or to both a fine and imprisonment.