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| Bro. Louis Mallia |
First point. Bro Mallia is absolutely right that Pulis, Scerri and the other sex abusers had a right to be defended like any other citizen. Indeed, Bro Mallia erred on the side of caution when he said that his order was not ready "to pay whatever it took to get them freed". The essence of criminal justice is that the accused makes the strongest defense case possible. And if takes good money to do so, so be it
Second point. If Lawrence Grech and the other sex abuse victims are the heroes in this case, the one who comes next is Patrick Valentino, their lawyer. He did his job impeccably, with patience and professionalism. And he did it all for free. He did not charge Lawrence and his fellow victims a single cent for working on the case and representing them in court for eight whole years. I have to say this myself because Patrick is not the type to blow his trumpet.
Now, just as the abusers had a right to the best legal advice and just as the victims' lawyer did an admirable job out of the goodness of his heart, an issue still bothers me. Inequality of arms.
To defend the abusers, the MSSP had the financial means to pay a Giannella Caruana Curran and a Joe Giglio and their substantial legal law firms. For eight whole years. The MSSP did not disclose the amount they forked out but it had to be a pretty penny. On the other hand, the victims had no means at their disposal. To this day, some of them barely have enough money to live on. They had no alternative but to seek out the services of a single lawyer who was willing to represent them for free. Patrick Valentino did all he could and he did it well. But I am sure that the victims' case could have been stronger if he had more help and resources to back him up.
This week, Lawrence and his friends got justice. But with money, they could have got more justice. If you know what I mean.
2 comments:
It is definitely great to have seen the priests punished. To many, that is justice. Probably it gives the required psychological closure.
In terms of the money and all, we should focus on developing mechanisms to empower today's young people, especially the more vulnerable. Proactivity is the key. Let us learn from this and prevent tomorrow's abuses. Let us learn, and encourage other victims to come forward.
So the real question is: what is the Maltese Government doing about this? Is it doing enough or not???
Lou, I have some questions regarding your comments:
1. will you make host more TV programmes to discuss that yesterday Appogg stated that last year only they had more than 1,000 abuse cases reported?
2. will the Church be the only institution that you will call to accountability, or there will be others such as the lawyers and the doctors?
3. so we had Stitching and it created a hype; then the infamous boof with graphic decriptions and we protested ... the article in a public newspaper with so graphic details, will be called into question as well?
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