And if you're a 60-year-old Maltese man who repeatedly rapes his mistress's nine-year-old daughter, you get seven years.
The Times, Thursday, 23rd October 2008
Two jailed for beach rape
Waylon JohnstonTwo Libyan men were jailed for a total of 25 years yesterday after jurors unanimously found one of them guilty of raping a Swedish girl and the other of assisting him.
The girl, who was holidaying in Malta with a friend, was raped by one man of the men while the other held her down in Shingles Bay, St Julians….Nader Abdulaziz Elgerian was found guilty of raping the girl and of relapsing. Hasan Mohamed Ahmed was found guilty of assisting him. While making his pleas on punishment, the head of the Prosecution Unit at the Attorney General’s Office, lawyer Anthony Barbara said that there might have never been such a clearer guilty verdict on all charges as in this case.
“Instead of coming to Malta for a holiday, the girls were subjected to trauma that would not be easily forgotten throughout their lives”. He added that the punishment should reflect the personal suffering of the girl and serve as a deterrent to Maltese citizens and foreigners alike.
Defence lawyer Joe Brincat said that although Mr Elgerian had been found guilty of relapsing, raising his punishment to reflect this was not mandatory, adding that Mr Ahmed had a clean police record. Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono took into consideration the pleas on punishment and the gravity of the case. He said he also considered the fact that Mr Elgerian had already been found guilty of theft and was an illegal immigrant. Mr Elgerian was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Mr Ahmed was jailed for 10 years. They were also fined €4,237.96 each.
And then just read this for good measure:
The Times, Thursday, 23rd October 2008
Cases of rape
Between 2005 and 2007, there were 31 cases of rape, Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici told Parliament yesterday. Answering a question by Labour MP Carmelo Abela, the minister said there were seven cases in 2005, 13 in 2006 and 11 in 2007. Twenty-five cases were pending in court. Four rapists were given a suspended sentence, one was fined and one was imprisoned.
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The message I get is “Its not so bad if you’re Maltese”.
[Daphne – And the message I get from this case is: my god, how appalling – two dirty Libyans raped two nice Swedish girls. I’ll zip my mouth.]
Just to be clear, when I said “its not so bad”, I meant the rape, not the sentence.
And the message I wish to give… Perhaps all the judiciary minor daughters should ALL be sexually assaulted by some paedophile – perhaps they will change their lenient sentences !
In my view its Mr Justice Galea debono who is the only one who sentences sensibly (15 years and 10 years are deserved for rape) .Its the rest of the judiciary which is one BIG JOKE especially when sentencing paedophiles.
The law falls very heavily on men of Arab origin. If the rapist is Maltese,he gets off much more lightly. It seems his daughter/grandaughter/niece/mistress’s daughter doesn’t suffer the same amount of trauma as Swedish girls!!! Lucky Maltese girls!!
So a one-off rape gets a Libyan man 15 years, and this bastard ( http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=54883 ) gets only 7?
It’s not to say that the Libyans didn’t deserve the sentence they were handed down, but the Maltese pervert should have got far more for doing what he did to that poor child. The child herself has a life sentence.
Compare the case with this foreign one, at least where the relationship between the attacker and the victim are concerned, and – most of all – to the sentence handed down. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/robber-gets-life-in-prison-for-rape-of-partners-daughter-46421.html
I opened the link and read the article. It’s unbelievable, but how can any self-respecting mother, whether Maltese, Irish or any other nationality not realise what is happenning under her nose? When such cases are brought to court aren’t the mothers arrested for being party to their daughter’s abuse? As somebody wrote in these comments the victim gets a life sentence as their development – especially sexually and psychologically is severely damaged.
Our laws need to be urgently reviewed with much harsher sentences (castration?)imposed on the perpetrators – whether Maltese or not.
Call me what you want, I’m no expert in law, but I am an authority on foreign ‘court’ TV series! Aren’t similar cases supposed to have roughly identical jail sentences? A rape is a rape, no? So if the law says x to y years for a rape, they’re supposed to jail these animals for x to y years. Even the more so, if the rape involves underage children or members of the family, sentences should be even harsher. But not in Malta, it seems….
Only in Malta do these things happen. Someone knows someone ……..
@ Martha When you think about it , the rapist of his mistresses 9 year old daughter got 7 years ; what about the paedophile priests who are indeed abusing/raping boys who are under their care go scot free – and with the full knowledge or shall I dare say acquiescence of the Catholic Church . This fact is happening under the very nose of the Pope himself !
[Daphne – Yes, and what about those two Pandolfino brothers, who repeatedly raped – for the video camera – two brothers under 10 who had been entrusted to their care by their wayward mother? If I recall correctly, they got 10 years. As for that nine-year-old girl, maybe she asked for it by getting drunk and going down to Shingles beach in the middle of the night with two men she didn’t know who asked her for sex.]
Did justice ever treat anybody equally??
[Daphne – The point is that it’s supposed to, and not be so blatant in doing otherwise. I think it’s a chief justice or judge who reduces a drug-dealer’s jail term for a financial hand-out who should be sentenced to 15 years in prison, but there you go. Apparently, that’s not such a serious crime as taking advantage of a drunken girl who’s inane enough to go down to the beach with strange men in the small hours of the morning.]
If I were the law I would lock up and throw away the key any monster who abuses or hurts children and animals. These are always innocent and defenceless. Every time I hear such stories, I just want to cry.
Why don’t we petition the Justice Minister to issue clear directives to judges for them to really come down heavily with harsher sentences to convicted paedophiles and rapists. There are hardly ever any mitigating circumstances in these cases.
I’m quite sure that the vast majority of the adult population would sign and things might change.
With regards to foreigners committing such crimes, deportation after serving of sentence would also be included in the court decision
Many of you will have seen this story in today’s Times:
“Three men aged between 18 and 20 were given suspended sentences after they admitted to participating in sexual acts with three 14-year-old girls in a public garden.
The three men, whose names cannot be published on court order, also admitted to offending public morals and performing sexual acts in a garden in Vittoriosa last August.
Before handing down judgment, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera took into consideration the fact that the men had filed guilty pleas early on in the proceedings, that they are first-time offenders and that they cooperated with the police.
The magistrate placed all three under a supervision order for four years and ordered them not to get in touch with the girls in any way for the next four years.”
1. Why can’t the names of the accused be published?
2. Is there no such thing as statutory rape in the laws of Malta?
There is no question that anyone guilty of rape or paedophilia needs to be chemically castrated and put away for a very long time as these people are damaged goods which shall persist in their actions time and again.
I don’t accept anyone who claims these people are somehow ill and should be helped because otherwise everyone who indulges in criminal activity can easily be slotted into some illness of sorts: Where would it end? And how many of us are ill with something and don’t do these things but often contribute more than others to try and improve the community they live in?
Let me state, however, some points which crop to mind as a result of the discussion till now:
a. As guilty as any pervert are those spouses or relatives who may know or suspect what is happening to children within their own home and do not speak up and take action simply so as to avoid splitting the family or cause problems. Too many wives or partners have allowed heinous acts to go on and everyone knows about this fact. What sort of weak and selfish persons are these?
b. Going on to the individual cases which have been reproduced in this page, in my opinion it is not as much that the Libyans got a more severe sentence than they were due but in reality it was that the Maltese pervert got much, much less than his reiterated crime deserved.
c. In fact, please remember that in the case of the Swedish girls, there are three facts to consider: First, that one of the men was a relapser. Second was that they led the girls to another five men (and I presume the Libyans knew them and did not reveal their identities) and the third factor is that there sex cannot be consensual, in my opinion, where the girls involved were stoned or drunk. It’s like saying that the girls were naked… Unless there is a clear case of consensual sex, any form of pressure, violence or coercion is tantamount to rape.
d. Some posters invariably draw in the matter of paedophile clergymen whenever cases of rape or suchlike crop up: The Church has made many mistakes in this area and has paid very heavily for these mistakes in many jurisdictions. I hope that one day soon, even the Dioceses of Malta and Gozo wake up and realise that hiding these things make matters worse and may only lead to speculation, further harm and may give rise to suspicion or conspiracy theories.
This last point is very important to someone who – like me – has a commitment to his Catholic faith: I know of a number of young men and women who had (and maybe still do) the vocation to join a religious order but shied away because of their personal fear of being labelled over time as being closet gays / lesbians or, worse, people with paedophile tendencies. I know it sounds maybe extreme but I cannot blame them and if the situation persists in Malta as it is today – i.e. without forceful yet tactful action being taken – I think we shall still continue living in the dread of more cases occurring.
In all this sordid scenario involving different forms of rape and paedophilia, my attention is invariably drawn to the victims who suffer the brunt of these events. I have yet to hear or read one case where anyone who has been even slightly felt the brunt of these monsters ended up without any form of emotional scar which accompanied them throughout his or her life.
“[Daphne – The point is that it’s supposed to, and not be so blatant in doing otherwise…”
‘Supposed to’ doesn’t exist in this society. Justice is fallible as a bridge is fallible if someone bribes its architect to weaken its structural integrity.
@ John Meilak:
Justice is by definition just. Therefore justice is supposed to be just. Its that simple.
Justice is not fallible. Either justice has been served, or it has not.
[Maybe you could post it in an article that would be more relevant].
http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/166660/Racism-In-Russia.html
Ms.Caruana Galizia,
So now we hear that there were another 5 guys involved besides the two guys who got condemned,presumably of the same nationality:if they had done that to maltese girls the maltese would have probably punished them on the spot!It shows what respect these guys have for the maltese in general and christian girls in particular!
[Daphne – Quite frankly, when men are thinking with their penis, I don’t imagine it stops to consider whether the woman in question is Christian or not. I imagine you’re the same.]
What about this?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081005/local/lawyer-and-family-offered-gozo-rape-girl-euro-7-000-deal/
Or is it not worth mentioning because they are relatives of a PN Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said?
[Daphne – Yes, I was wondering about the likelihood of their getting 15 years. If you think I haven’t mentioned it because they’re related to Chris Said, then you’re obviously a newcomer to this blog and don’t know that it was the first place where the relationship was pointed out.]
@David S & Daphne that’s the beauty of participating in a blog. You keep yourself up to date. David S I agree with you. Unfortunately the Church authorities in Malta adopt double standards in certain cases. Now if a priest falls in love and marries – good luck to the couple-he is defrocked even before he gets married. BUT if he is a paedophile, life goes on as usual (for him)! (As long as there is no penetration everything’s OK!)
[Daphne – Quite frankly, when men are thinking with their penis, I don’t imagine it stops to consider whether the woman in question is Christian or not. I imagine you’re the same.]
Some of our Libyan visitors are a shame to their own people and I have been told this many times: Forget about the businessmen who come here due to legitimate business. Forget those who have family ties or who are settled here.
As in Malta and anywhere else, there are a largish group of youths – some spoilt with money and lack of discipline and others uncouth rabble from depressed areas – which travel to Malta as they heard or know of the fun and games that can be had here which are not possible so publicly in Libya.
Since laws and regulations can be twisted and subject to many, let’s say, interpretations in Libya (as in many other Mediterranean countries), they think they can get away with anything here and they flaunt their visa regulations, get drunk and stoned and act out their ‘gangsta’ ambitions by clanning with their friends imitating the MTV rap videos they see via satellite.
Now, when they are in Malta and regularly end up being rebuked by girls, their basic instincts take over and since they are in a place in which the pressure of their elders and their local authorities is nowhere in sight and since they were educated from youth that near anything goes with girls and females, they invariably cause trouble.
And this is the long and the short of it. The truth is that Malta does not do anything to guide its visitors to enjoy our islands properly and neither does it do anything to enforce simple immigration controls which would avoid all the problems for visitors and Maltese alike.
@ Emanuel Muscat:
“Presumably” (of the same nationality) is a strong word when it refers to such a hideous crime as rape. I would suggest you use it more thoughtfully, unless you wish to give the impression that people of a certain nationality tend to be genetically more prone to be rapists.
Regarding respect for Christian Maltese girls, first of all you are assuming the Maltese girls were Christians (which is probable but in no way certain). But in any case, rapists usually have respect for no one. It’s not as if they think “let’s rape a Christian Maltese girl today”.
@ Religio et Patria:
“Some of our Libyan visitors are a shame to their own people and I have been told this many times”.
True, but still, you will agree that rapists would not care about the nationality or the religion of the rape victim.
This applies to all rapists, including the Maltese criminals who give a bad name to Malta when doing crimes both in Malta and abroad.
Kenneth: You seem to lack an understanding of the psyche of certain people. This minority of perverts – and we’ve got our own so please it’s not a matter of racism or otherwise – cannot do these things in their countries because they would end up being killed by the girl’s family or by the state.
And there’s another issue which is often hushed up: Now girls are not just accepting to get married to whom their relatives decide to make arrangements with (at least in certain urban areas and in certain circles) and premarital sex of any sort is out of the question. Girls are choosing to build careers to have some sort of financial independence and not end up as baby-machines, pleasure-providers and general slaves in the household tending to the whim of each and every relative of the husband. They’re finally growing up… but in a hushed manner still.
And so, this coupled with the promise that in Malta and (before a clampdown by the authorities there) in Tunisia, you see bands of Libyan youths trying their utmost to get their rocks off with any girl they please. In Malta, they think they can get more easily their way since, yes, Maltese girls are thought to be more liberal and nymphomaniac because they are not bound by the codes of Islam. Sheer ignorance but it’s there, unfortunately.
May I also add that the definition of ‘rape’ as used by us is not as in use elsewhere: Marital rape, for example, does not exist in certain jurisdictions and girls / women who report rapes in certain cultures are not considers the victims that they really are but really considered one of the guilty parties (if not THE guilty party).
This is a delicate subject which must be discussed objectively and with the necessary background information. Unfortunately, not all groups / communities of people behave in the same manner or have the same yardsticks or obey the same rules.
@Kenneth Cassar
Justice IS fallible, because it is in the hands of mortal FALLIBLE men.
And fallible means that something has the POTENTIAL to fail. It does not mean that it is failed.
The law is an ass and some sentences that are meted out do not make much sense.
[Daphne – Something on which to agree, then.]
“Religio et Patria Saturday, 25 October 1104hrs
Some of our Libyan visitors are a shame to their own people and I have been told this many times: Forget about the businessmen who come here due to legitimate business. Forget those who have family ties or who are settled here.”
I second that. This country seems to attract the riff-raff of other neighbouring countries. As if we do not have enough problems with our own home-grown product. :(
I second that. This country seems to attract the riff-raff of other neighbouring countries. As if we do not have enough problems with our own home-grown product. :(
We’re not the only ones you know ( shades of ‘our problems are unique and nobody else can understand us’) – you find riff raff all over the world and we don’t hold a particular attraction to them. Not knowing the background to the story of the libyans and the Swedes, I will not comment. Although rape is not justifiable etc etc., some ladies do lead the men on without thinking of the consequences. I remember once a most highly regarded citizen of Bidnija writing (or quoting somebody) in the Times something to the effect that ‘if you can’t stop the rape, relax and enjoy it’ or words to that effect. Before your collective chests expand with outrage and reach for the keyboard, pls note it’s not me that said/wrote it. I’m just the messenger.
Don’t you think that the sentences metted out by Justice Galea Debono are the only ones that make an sense nowadays.
A quick glance at the newspapers and it seems as if he is the only judge dishing out serious jail terms for serious offences. In my opinion he is the only no nonsense judge that there is around. Malta would be a much better place if all judges applied the law the same way that Justice Galea Debono does. At least drug dealers and child molesters would be put behind bars for many many years.
I know nothing about the law however it seems as if it is really luck of the draw- and that is definetly not the way it should be. The law should be equal for all. I would love to see the Said brothers standing trial infront of Justice Galea Debono, as at least if they are found guilty i am sure that the jail term dished out will reflect their crime.
[Daphne – I don’t think this last sentence of his made any sense at all. If you are going to mete out a sentence of 15 years to a man who forces himself on a grown women once – and not in a scenario involving a surprise attack or weapons – then what in heaven’s name is the prison sentence for a serial child molester going to be, 70 years?]
[Daphne – I don’t think this last sentence of his made any sense at all. If you are going to mete out a sentence of 15 years to a man who forces himself on a grown women once – and not in a scenario involving a surprise attack or weapons – then what in heaven’s name is the prison sentence for a serial child molester going to be, 70 years?]
I think that it is appropriate for the simple reason that rape should be dealt with very toughly. Rape is still rape whether or not it is the first time or the tenth time. Rape is still rape whether or not the victim was drunk or whether the victim was ambushed. The first victim of a serial rapist will be as scarred emotionally as his tenth victim. The fact that a person was jailed after his first rape is because society was lucky that the perpetrator was caught early. For all we know had the rapist not been caught he might have plucked up the courage to rape more. with this sentence Justice Galea Debono in this case has sent out a message (just my opinion) that rape will not be tolerated in this society.
If we are burdened with the misfortune of having a serial rapist in our midst and he is caught then I would expect that the sentence is much harsher- why not give him a life sentence? Has he not ruined the lives of several innocent women?
with regards to your question re the serial child molester, that monster (once again my opinion) should be given a life term if found guilty. Unfortunately a life term in Malta is only 30 years (excluding all the political pardons etc).
so to conclude I believe that Justice Galea Debono is the one of the only judges that i can see who is sentencing criminals according to the severity of the crime that they did.
[Daphne – John, only an idealistic man or an extreme nutcase feminist would fail to distinguish between a man who’s been led on and continues to force himself on a woman against her will, and a serial rapist who is motivated not by sex but by hatred of women, and who lies in wait for lone women to attack them. As every sane woman on the planet knows, there is a world of difference between the two situations. Put simply, we can avoid the first situation and we know that many, many men – even those who are neither ‘rapists’ nor psychos, even men who we know – would do exactly the same thing. In fact, we have known, in our time, young men who have done the same thing and young women who have ended up in the same situation only to blame themselves (not entirely correctly). On the other hand, a psycho serial rapist who attacks us at night by springing out of some dark alley is a real fear. As for the rest, most women know by the age of 20 that under no circumstances should they go down to a beach at night with a group – not even one – of men they have never seen before and who have picked them up off the street at night, because it communicates to the men the message ‘I want sex’ and ‘I’m an easy lay.’ No matter how much we’d had to drink, we’d still be well aware of this. That’s why I have to wonder what on earth possessed that woman, drunk or not, because whatever she says and whatever the Women are Virgins Who Must be Protected attitude of the court might be, the message she was communicating to those men was: I want to have sex with you. I’m not saying what they did was right or excusable – not at all. I’m saying that what she did was wholly inexcusable and extremely dumb. And I’m saying that you can’t compare the situation to that of a serial rapist, because serial rapists are not normal men who think they’ve found an easy lay who then tells them No, but sick and twisted individuals whose motivation isn’t sex but violence, and who are deeply disturbed.]
Without going into the merits of each case mentioned, I would just like to quote a phrase by the late Dr Paul Cassar, an esteemed lecturer in Medical Forensic – “The Court is a Court of Law and not Justice”
Basically he wanted to impart to us the knowledge that each person that is involved in the collection of evidence and their interpretation as well as in court administration, has to do his/her duty with the utmost attention as the judge or magistrate or jury can only interpret the evidence that is brought up in court. A banal example – if someone is hit repeatedly but suffered “only” soft tissue injuries – this is considered a “minor injury” whilst if one give a punch and fractures his victim’s nose bridge, this is considered a “major injury” on the same level (when a medical certificate is issued) as a stabbing!
Thus when one comments on court cases, it would be interesting to look at the ability of the particular prosecuting officer as well as the ability of the defending attorney – as this is crucial to the outcome of the case.
@ John Meilak:
You will perhaps appreciate the difference between a proclamation of something to be “just” and justice itself.
Justice, by definition, cannot be other than just.
If a judge sentences an innocent to life-imprisonment, for instance, he/she would claim it is justice, but it would not be so.
Do you perhaps believe in moral relativism?
@ Religio et Patria:
I do have an understanding of the psyche of certain people, so much so that I do not generalise and claim (unscientifically) that all persons living in a certain land are psychologically clones.
It is certainly true that sexual repression gives the opportunity for a minority of perverts to exist (this would perhaps explain pedophilia in a minority of Catholic priests).
But just as I do not generalise and do not say that I would expect all Catholic priests to be pedophiles, I also do not generalise and do not say that it is expected of Arabs to be rapists when they find themselves in more liberal countries.
@ Kenneth Cassar
‘I do have an understanding of the psyche of certain people, so much so that I do not generalise and claim (unscientifically) that all persons living in a certain land are psychologically clones.’
Let me put it simpler: What for us may be a taboo, for others it may be an accepted norm. Take, for example, the varying interpretations on things such as the age of consent.
“It is certainly true that sexual repression gives the opportunity for a minority of perverts to exist (this would perhaps explain pedophilia in a minority of Catholic priests).
But just as I do not generalise and do not say that I would expect all Catholic priests to be pedophiles, I also do not generalise and do not say that it is expected of Arabs to be rapists when they find themselves in more liberal countries.”
I was very clear that not all Arabs – muslims, to be correct – are rapists but Islam gives more latitude to men to do as they please over women. As I said earlier, unfortunately there are groups of usually young men who view countries such as Malta as the ideal venue – away from home – where they can, so to speak, get their rocks off quite liberally.
Daphne,
I will agree with you that I do tend to be an idealist sometimes and particularly on certain issues such as this case in point. However i do not agree with your argument entirely. From the testimony and from eye witness reports it is clear that the girls were not interested in any form of sex and they made this amply clear. I quote:
“An eyewitness, Zakarija Abdisamed Abukar, said he saw two Libyan men walk onto the beach with two Swedish-looking girls. He overheard their conversation because the girl seemed very insistent that she did not want to have sex.”
Added to this it was not the case of a drunk women leading on a guy who she might or might not know. I quote:
“Speaking to the girls at the police depot after the incident, Inspector Vassallo said one of them told him she had tried to get away from Mr Nadar on the beach when another man pushed her to the ground. She bit him and Mr Hasan put his hand over her mouth. She could not breathe so kept quiet in the hope that he would stop.”
While I agree with your argument viz a vis the difference in the pysche of a serial rapist and a “rapist”,i do not believe that it applies in this case. These men who raped the sweedish women were given ample messages that the girls were not interested in any form of sex. In my books the fact that he had to put a hand over her mouth and pinning her down is evidence enough that she did not want what he had to offer and that he forced it onto her. It was not a case of a consenting couple who are recently dating and things go to far.
Putting aside the fact that she was an idiot for letting herself get into that situation, my point is that this case should be treated as a serious rape.
15 years to me sounds reasonable. If we do have a serial rapists who is found guilty then yes why not sentence him to life in prison.
The sad with our justice system is that many a time the judgements meted out do not reflect the severity of the crime and thus criminals are not being deterred from going about their crimes. Just by casually going through court reviews (i have no statistics so i stand to be corrected) it is my impression that jail terms issued are very lenient compared to the crime that took place. It is in my opinion that only this Judge is consistent and delivers a judgement that merits the severity of the crime.
Apologies in advance for the long rant.
John
[Daphne – Has it ever occurred to you that the other man might have turned state evidence and even lied so as to get off? I’m trying to picture a scenario in which a grown woman walks onto a beach at night with strange men who are asking her for sex, and she carries right on to that beach while saying ‘No, I don’t want to have sex.’ Does this chime as realistic? It doesn’t, with me, and I’m a woman. I’ve lived long enough to understand one thing: that men in Malta really have an odd idea of women. We’re either virgins or whores, with nothing in between, and we either deserve a good kick or we need ‘protection’. Oh, if only you knew that most women know all the time what they’re doing while they’re doing it, and why they’re doing it.]
@ Religio et Patria:
I have no problem with what you say above. My only problem is on “generalising” and assuming that, for instance, because Islam might give “more latitude to men to do as they please over women”, this means that individual Muslims necessarily are more prone to rape than individual Catholics or individual members of other religions or none.
That “there are groups of usually young men who view countries such as Malta as the ideal venue – away from home – where they can, so to speak, get their rocks off quite liberally”, is basically true, just as in the case of many European students who come to Malta under the pretense of studying English, when in actual fact, what they really want is to be away from their parents so that they “get their rocks off quite liberally”.
So I think that basically, we are in agreement here.
Religio et Patria: Maltese are not above “getting their rocks off quite liberally” in “the ideal venue”. Oddly (or perhaps not)they once found Sicily to be “the ideal venue”.
[Daphne – Perhaps I should tell Religio et Patria that story about the stoned girl lying on the ground at Sliema Pitch in the middle of winter way back around 1980, while the boys at Fortizza queued up for their turn. There are quite a few married men around our age who should have served 15 years in jail going by the standards of our courts.]
[Corinne Vella: Religio et Patria: Maltese are not above “getting their rocks off quite liberally” in “the ideal venue”. Oddly (or perhaps not)they once found Sicily to be “the ideal venue”.]
No, Maltese are not above that but at least we supposedly have laws and a culture which are supposed to maintain a certain decorum. Certain forms of abuses are not excused in our culture and country.
My concern is that we have so many of our own home-bred specimen that we really don’t need to shouldering the weight of others who may come here from the north or south and expect to do as they please.
Please do not forget that between one fourth and one third of prison inmates and persons on probation or with suspended sentences are non-Maltese and the incidence and rate of these figures are on the increase.
[Daphne – Perhaps I should tell Religio et Patria that story about the stoned girl lying on the ground at Sliema Pitch in the middle of winter way back around 1980, while the boys at Fortizza queued up for their turn. There are quite a few married men around our age who should have served 15 years in jail going by the standards of our courts.]
I heard about the sort of things Daphne mentions and I do not hesitate to state that I would expect those sort of men to be put away for long periods as they are nothing but rapists. No question as to that.
And, yes, I had heard about the Fortizza case and I am not sure whether it was 1980 or 1981…
Religio et Patria: It sounds like you’re confusing issues. Or maybe you don’t see a distinction between people who seek relief in “ideal venues” (like Sicily circa 1987?) and those who force themselves on someone whose power of judgement is weakened by alcohol.
Daphne – Perhaps I should tell Religio et Patria that story about the stoned girl lying on the ground at Sliema Pitch in the middle of winter way back around 1980, while the boys at Fortizza queued up for their turn. There are quite a few married men around our age who should have served 15 years in jail going by the standards of our courts.]
If you saw that abominable incident with your very own eyes at the time, then I hope you did the right thing by reporting immediatly to the authorities whilst trying to assist that poor girl.
:(
[Daphne – You must have lived a sheltered life. That sort of thing happened with depressing regularity. There was even a girl nicknamed Lamp-Post, because all the boys ‘raised their legs’ against her. As far as I know, none of the girls are beating themselves up about this, and the boys are all family men who are probably returning from Sunday at the Marsa Club round about now. That’s why I tend not to have rose-tinted spectacles where girls, alcohol, beaches, night-time and men are concerned.]
Bah!
Who lived sheltered lives in Malta in the seventies or eighties when one woke up every morning not quite knowing what old Dom was going to think of next, to make one’s life a bigger misery then it already was?