No. 9/Labour politician held on remand as Malta/international police crack ring that raped boys and filmed them

A Malta Labour Party politician is being held on remand at Corradino Prison after being arraigned in the Courts of Justice yesterday on charges of raping pubescent boys, paying them off and filming them. He is part of a ring cracked by an international police operation which then informed the Malta Police.

Five men have been arrested and charged so far. George Bezzina, 57, Alex Caruana, 57, and Raymond Buttigieg, 47, were arraigned two days ago. All three are held on remand. The court banned publication of the victims’ names and issued a protection order for them, but said there is no justification for a ban on publication of the names of the accused.

Yesterday, another two men were arraigned on the same charges: one from Zejtun, 66, and another from Kercem in Gozo, 36. This time the court – they were arraigned before a different magistrate – upheld the defence counsel’s request for a ban on the publication of their names, justifying this by saying that their names would have to be published on the sex offenders register anyway (if and when they are found guilty).

The Malta Independent immediately discovered that one of the accused, the 36-year-old from Kercem, is Labour Party local councillor Ray Azzopardi (photograph below), and contacted the Malta Labour Party’s new deputy leader for party affairs, Chris Cardona, to ask him what happens next.

The newspaper got around the court ban by naming the councillor as Ray Azzopardi then asking Cardona what the Labour Party plans to do about him following “the serious charges” against him in court yesterday, but did not mention what the “serious charges” are.

However, a close and careful reading of the news stories on The Malta Independent portal yesterday brings up the correlation between the two separate reports: one in which a man from Kercem, 36, was arraigned on boy-rape/prostitution/child sex ring charges, and the other report in which Chris Cardona is asked what he plans to do about Labour councillor Ray Azzopardi, 36, of Kercem, following the serious charges against him.

The newspaper did well to do this as there is absolutely no justification for a ban on publishing the name of a politician involved in an international child sex ring, and the public-interest (as distinct from public curiosity) arguments for making this case public are overwhelming. An elected politician is there because the public has voted for him and the public needs to know that he is accused of raping boys, buying their silence, and filming the acts for international internet consumption.

Banning publication of the name of a politician involved in any crime, let alone a crime of this grave nature, is a scandal in itself.

Chris Cardona told The Malta Independent that he is “informed of the case and its nature” and that Azzopardi “will soon tender his resignation”. The Labour Party “expects to receive his resignation later today”, Cardona said (meaning yesterday). The party deputy leader added, oddly, that “the Labour Party can’t afford to have a local councillor with such serious charges levelled against him” – so the party sees it as a matter of public relations, then, and not censure for raping boys and filming them – and that “if he does not resign, he will be suspended until court proceedings are concluded” (not fired).

Labour Party local councillor Ray Azzopardi was arraigned in the Courts of Justice yesterday on charges of raping and sexually abusing pubescent boys, buying their silence and filming the acts for consumption by an international ring of perverts. The ring was cracked by international police who contacted the Malta Police and gave them the names of Maltese men. So far, five men have been arraigned in the Valletta courts in two days.