US ambassador unknowingly receives US-registered child-sex offender
US-registered child-sex offender Carmel Spiteri, who was imprisoned in New York for 16 months for sex crimes against his own son, with US ambassador to Malta Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, in September 2013
The ambassador of the United States of America unknowingly received US-registered child-sex offender Carmel aka Challie Spiteri, at an embassy ceremony on 11th September 2013* to commemorate ‘nine-eleven’.
Censu Galea, the deputy Speaker of the House, was also present.
The embassy press notice says:
“On September 11, U.S. Air Force Vietnam veteran Mr. Challie Spiteri presented U.S. Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley with a photo montage to honor and pay tribute to the victims and heroes of 9/11.
Distinguished guests attended, including Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Censu Galea.
Mr. Challie Spiteri lived many years in the United States and served in Vietnam with the U.S. Air Force as a non-commissioned officer. He now resides in Malta and is an advocate of human rights.”
*The date given on the US embassy website post, 11th September 2011, is wrong. The press release and photograph are in the 2013 archive and Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley was posted to Malta in 2012.
Spiteri holds dual citizenship, Maltese and American. He spent his life in the United States but retired in Malta a few years ago.
In 1998, he was convicted of sexual crimes against his own 15-year-old son, and sentenced to 16 months in prison, which he served in a New York jail.
Carmel Spiteri was put on the United States sex offenders register and the information is public via the official New York State register of sex offenders, which is on the internet.
On his return to Malta, Carmel Spiteri adopted his nickname Challie as his ‘official’ name. He is not a human rights lawyer.