Not fireworks, this time
Just two days after the higher court awarded Pearl and Edwin Grech €420,000 in compensation for the death of their 15-year-old daughter Karin in a bomb explosion 33 years ago, Peter Ripard lost a leg and almost lost his life when a bomb was detonated at the Transport Authority offices.
For those of us who lived through the days when bombs were part of everyday life, this last one will have brought back dreadful memories of what things were like then.
It reminded us how abnormal it was that we thought it normal. We’d hear a terrific explosion, say to each other “Oh, another bomb”, then try to get back to what we were doing after ringing around to find out who and where it was this time. It’s only fairly recently that we’ve come to react to explosions with “There goes another fireworks factory”.
I’ve been wondering what sort of person takes the trouble to make or commission a bomb, lower it outside somebody’s office, then wait patiently with his hand on the other end of a piece of string to detonate it. I can see what might motivate a person to carry out other sorts of crimes, but this? It’s beyond comprehension.
What could the Transport Authority possibly have done that warranted going to all that trouble, with the attendant risk of imprisonment for life, and the knowledge that you might kill or main somebody other than your actual target, as in fact happened this time as it did with Karin Grech?
Worse still is the thought that this person didn’t particularly care who he killed or maimed as long as he killed or maimed somebody at the office where he sought his revenge. The violence is extraordinary. There are more sociopaths around than we imagine.
I am glad that Pearl and Edwin Grech won that compensation. I know what he means when he says that it is not about the money. It is about public and concrete acknowledgement of their suffering.
It helps them reach some form of closure, even if only tenuous, because the real closure they want is probably now permanently out of reach: finding the person who sent that parcel-bomb to their home and killed the daughter instead of the father.
Barring some kind of death-bed confession, it is unlikely that the police will ever be able to track down the murderer, and even if they identify him (odd but I take it for granted that it’s a man) they will not be able to prove that he did it, and with a jury trial that’s essential because you need certainty for a conviction.
I only hope that if there is just such a death-bed confession, and let’s not forget that 33 years on the man who did it might well have died already, the priest who is the recipient of such horror weighs the matter up with his conscience and decides that it would be by far the greater wrong to leave the girl’s parents in hell than to break the covenant of secrecy in confession, particularly when the criminal is no longer alive, and especially when regret for what one has done is a prerequisite for pardon in the sacrament.
It is easy to dismiss such thinking as facile and the possibility as far-fetched, but I cannot forget how a man rang the Bonello household (they used to run Bonello’s kiosk at the Sliema ferries, when I was a child) shortly after dawn and, while refusing to say who he was, told Mr Bonello: “Patrick Holland died last night. He wanted you to know how sorry he is for what he did to you.”
Patrick Holland, when he was minister for trade under prime minister Mintoff, had rescinded their licence to run the kiosk, a mainstay of Sliema life, and had given it to Joe Pace, who then went on to build and run Magic Kiosk. The Bonellos were left destitute and desperate in those days when there were simply no jobs, and they had to be supported by friends for a time. But Holland knew that he had done much worse than remove their source of income. He had destroyed their identity, their sense of self, and their peace of mind.
I hope that the Attorney-General will not appeal against the decision to award that much money to the Grechs. The government had offered an ex gratia payment of around half that amount, but the Grechs thought it wasn’t anywhere near enough, and that’s why they sued.
I had a complex reaction to their decision at the time. I could see why they thought accepting it would be like placing a low price on their daughter’s life, but then, how can you place any price at all on your daughter’s life? How can you say that €220,000 are not enough, but €420,000 are acceptable?
If it is really not about the money, and if they do not want this to be a mercenary valuation of what their daughter was worth (horrible thought), Pearl and Edwin Grech would be wise and correct to use that capital sum, when it eventually comes to them and it might be years yet, to endow a foundation to help under-privileged children, in Karin’s name. There could be no better way of perpetuating her memory positively.
As for Peter Ripard, I trust that the government will do the decent thing and, though no amount of money can ever make up for the loss of a leg, give him the compensation he deserves. He is not the sort of man to sue for what he thinks he is owed, and it would be immoral to take advantage of that.
This article was published in The Malta Independent on Sunday, yesterday.
29 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Violence is a horrible thing and must be condemned at all times.
I agree that the Grechs deserved a decent acknowledgement from the state, considering the circumstances in which they suffered the violence in their case.
Without wanting to be controversial, like others, I find it unacceptable that the matter was not dealt with much faster by the government of the time.
Why should the government pay compensation to victims of violent crime? It is not the government who carried out these atrocities, therefore why should the tax payer be penalised for this?
What about paying all victims of crime similar sums in future?
I doubt if such compensation would have been awarded to a working class family!
Does anyone remember when a bomb was placed near someone’s door and it killed an elderly woman who was sleeping in the front room?
She had been unwell and had gone to stay with her daughter who had put a bed in the sitting room.
. . . . . . . And the bomb had been placed at the wrong door anyway.
This is too much now. Your ignorance of some facts astund me. Wanting the confessor to tell one and all who owned up (under confession) to the brutal murder of Karen Grech. THAT SECRET WILL GO WITH THE CONFESSOR TO THE GRAVE. And there will be no discounts allowed to put the parents’ conscience at ease with themselves. A priest is a priest. That is why there is the secret of Confession AND THAT IS FOR LIFE. Just to please your readers you cannot put the confessional secret as if was a nothing, as if it was some country or village lawyer or what not, to keep under wraps. Yes, the confessor has to weigh in the lesser evil but still he will never divulge such a confessional secret even under pain of death or torture. And we have many such examples. That is one reason why the catholic church wont allow women to be priests. They easily succumb to sob stories. These are serious things with which no one can play with.
You say it’s not about money. Then why they don’t accept what the Government offers? At any rate é220,000 is a hell of a lot of money.
I wish the government would give me at least a quarter of that sum and I’ll be satisfied, even é20,000 will be enough for what I had to pass under the Labour governments. And who didn’t pass from hell under Labour governments?
Try sending yourself a parcel bomb so you can die a horrible death and then have someone lay claim to compensation for a life lost. Be sure to confess to your crime before you go so that your sin will be forgiven but look under your confessor’s cassock first to be sure no one will blab after you’re gone as that would undermine any claim to compensation.
The government and police at that time had a full ten years to investigate and bring the criminal to justice. One wonders why this was not done or at least an explanation given.
Yet, tal-Lejber still throw suspicions at their opposite side. It is more likely that some cover-up had taken place and we know that the MLP would never cover up for a Nationalist. It is on record that quite the contrary took place in the Raymond Caruana murder when not only the culprit was given ‘lead time’ to clean up any gunpowder residue but worse, framing an innocent farmer and planning a framed ‘suicide’ while he was laying at St.Luke’s hospital with a break-down as a result of the bogus charge! Luckily the plot was leaked out and the ‘suicide’ never took place and with the able counsel of the late Prof. Guido de Marco
he was eventually cleared of all fake charges.
Karen Grech’s murder, although she was not the intended target, cries out for justice even at this late stage and anyone with the slightest bit of information should come forward and do what is right.
It is inconceivable that anyone who has information continues to hide it in order not to embarrass/incriminate some individual or is still afraid of repercussions should such individual find himself in an influential position.
Being so closely related to Major Ripard, it is hard to comment on this piece.
We can only hope that the would-be killer – and make no mistake, the ‘person’ who did this was fully intent on murder – somehow comes to light.
My worry is that Maltese justice is so heavily biased in favour of criminals and criminality, that his eventual sentence, when weighed-up against what he did and especially what he intended doing, will be a bad joke.
Our society, with its milk-and-water liberalism is sick and needs reform from the bottom up. The penal code needs such an overhaul that it may be worth setting up a party just for the purpose. Most of us are touched by crime at some stage. We have become so used to petty theft like cars being broken into or mobiles stolen that we just shrug it off. Our general standard of driving is criminal/borderline murderous. (Ironically, one of the things uncle Peter was working so hard to change). Our housekeeping in public areas is a disgrace. our very everday speech is a catalogue of swearing and foul-mouthedness. We can’t queue, we can’t eat, we can’t even answer the ‘phone like civilised beings.
The big difference between the bomb that killed Karin Grech and the one that almost killed uncle Peter is that the former was an assassination attempt that went wrong and the latter was pure, undiluted terrorism.
For the first time, it would seem that a Maltese is at war with Maltese society. This is a watershed. Civilised Society must fight back and remove this scourge, root and branch.
Paying out compensation is perceived as admission of carrying or involvement in the crime. Why should a government take responsibility for acts it did not commit or it has not been proven to have committed?
As an ADI I have met Major Ripard quite often. He’s a true gentleman and I cannot ever say that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the cowardly bomber was.
Your site has been blocked by Malta Communicatins Authority. Maybe you already know. If I’m not mistaken it wasn’t a couple of months ago.
I have tried to access the site several times in vain. I get redirected to a page with the text below which I copied and pasted.
Access Denied The link you are accessing has been blocked by Web Filter URL: http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com Copyright 2004-2009 Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Below is the URL of the page.
http://172.27.72.27/web/login?_bcsp=1&_bceq=U2FsdGVkX181k4-bxwuGeeS5mENjr031bUNwhHmCHKCcvH8no-FZ4a-6oh9sP3gmVF2yDY4MGmM2CPf9ElrfwFNdt7TiJ7Wb_GVY82828UqvAxFH1lOv6tbSRBn4xvFV1v_8xNsoEEdycDCohzzlcp4QYg3iaMAgh0UFFqZO14WzsIQB5y24QGjYtDsbubJuqikeBCAoDLygcrdJ07d69m0CZWYAGYY5IRvDrZ6p50RzN96KsvpUYiWuo6cEKpVexIb5b9zcClv_Npr-rej0KI5rLHF6HhuDSIu7Hdofk6z3SXDcorGc40BX1BHtSOoVVbvUN6TEwYvdaWSxSgpiJ8ow5jBlFltswC53ostjZKxocZhVuzV7H-Pjb5Wa-ufl
This is the URL of this
[Daphne – This blog is blocked on the public service network so that public servants can’t spend time on it in their working hours. I’m guessing that the same system is being used for free public internet. I shall take up the matter.]
Clarification. Blocked from the free wifi service from St Anne Square, Sliema.
“How can you say that 220,000 euro are not enough, but 420,000 euro are acceptable?” Daphne, Edwin Grech has already answered your question. He has clarified that when
his family was offered 220,000 euro, he was expected, by
the Nationalist Administration, to declare in writing that
the murder of his dear daughter Karin Grech was
committed without any medico or political intentions.
Quite rightly and honourably Edwin Grech declined
to accept the 220,000 euro and refrained from
endorsing such a declaration.
Death bed confessions:
You assumed a lot of things Daphne. 99.99% the perpetrator was a man. But is he Catholic ? Is he dead? Let alone him making a death bed confession.
In Maltese criminal history there is a story of two brothers from Naxxar who went for the Salvatur feast in Lija and on their way back one of the brothers was killed with a stone in a pathway. Having quarreled in the morning with ‘noqtlok’ threats the surviving brother was found guilty of fratricide and hanged by the neck.
After some thirty years a dying man at Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital confessed to a priest that he killed the man by hitting him with a stone on the head when the victim went to urinate behind a wall. He attacked the victim to take his money which where found to be a few farthings. The confessor divulged what he was told because he was asked to do so by the ‘repenting sinner’.
Karin Grech’s death was not the government’s responsibility, so why is the government paying for this atrocity?My big question mark is: who commissioned the crime? Even if the perpetrator was found , Dr Grech still wouldn’t know who was/is his real enemy.
In the Bonello’s case there was Dr Holland’s (a minister) hand.
When a bomb was placed inside Commissioner Pullicino’s flat the perpetrator was identified by some tourists when he left the area on a small motorcycle just before the bomb exploded. What the Commissioner was after , before the guy was found dead near the Qormi bridge of Wied ic-Cawsli was “who sent the bomb and why?”
I hope I’m not hurting Dr Grech and his family with my comments , he and his family are victims. But we still don’t know what the motive of this hideous crime was.
Uhmmm
A death bed confession is not necessarily the Catholic sacrament of penance – it simply means confessing to whoever, normally the authorities.
The aim is for all to know and not to keep it secret.
This has nothing to do with the above article however the araignment of former Police Inspector David Gatt prompted me to have a look at his Facebook page. Very revealing! You had written about a group of people who seem to live in their own world socialising with each other and so on. Very much the case here! Quite hilarious is that he “likes” Don Luigi Corleone.
Wasn’t an ex gratia compensation of half the amount awarded a public acknowledgement of the Grechs’ suffering? Somebody must have figured out that a court award would eventually be more than the ex gratia offer. Apparently nobody does anything for money nowadays, or am I wrong?
Have you seen David Gatt’s affinity to Lupin on Facebook?
How come Dr David Gatt has the French masonic website as an activity on his facebook account?
SPOT THE DIFFERENCES:
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=13274
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/pullicino-orlando%E2%80%99s-private-member%E2%80%99s-bill-move-was-unacceptable-%E2%80%93-fenech-adami
Daphne, YOU WERE RIGHT! These two – like the ass and the ox – are eating from the same manger.
http://www.splendart.com/images/bue-asino-resina-sc8941.jpg
Dear Daphne, are you ok? Best Wishes for Christmas and the coming New Year.
I’m sorry I fail to agree with many of you. I sympathise completely with the Grech family and do not begrudge them any one cent that they won in compensation.
However, I do disagree with the principle upon which the compensation was awarded. I do not think that there was enough evidence to show that the tragedy occured because Edwin Grech was a strike breaker at the time of industrial action. That was the theory put forward by the plaintiffs, a theory which I respect – certainly – but which (a) I do not believe is true and (b) which remains a theory all the same, not backed up by evidence.
Here’s another theory. Edwin Grech had just been given a position at the time. Another individual jockeying and vying for the position could have used the strike break to disguise the real reason for placing a bomb.
Lastly, how does the government compensate an individual’s loss for the wrong doing perpetrated by a private individual. As long as the loss borne by the plaintiff is one that is caused or occaisoned by the Government then one can understand. But when an indivual is the victim of crime comitted by a private individual, the state never provides compensations.
What is the difference in the loss suffered by Prof. Grech and his wife and the loss suffered by, say, the young girl who just had her mother murdered over the week-end. Ah! in that case, I hear you cry, the perpetrator was known!
All the more reason for the Government to provide compensation and recover it from the perpetrator later on, rather than providing compensation for the misdeeds of an unknown miscreant on the basis of a theory not supported by any evidence whatsoever!…methinks
I expect that my comments will raise the ire of many readers…but think objectively and dispassionately about it, and you might find that you’ll have to agree with me.
I perfectly agree, and I’m not even thinking objectively or dispassionately. The Grech family were awarded compensation only because of Edwin Grech’s status as a famous and, after his terrible ordeal, respected politician. Yes, I am saying that the law has two weights and two measures in this country.
Willywonka is right. May I take this opportunity to wish Daphne and her family a very peaceful and Happy Christmas.
I have always struggled with such decisions, certainly not out of envy (who would envy having a teenage daughter killed?), but because it opens up a can of worms.
What about the families of Raymond Caruana, Nardu Debono, Lino the accountant, and so many others who died directly or indirectly for political reasons?
And why stop there? Who can tell how many died of heart attacks as a result of the injustice and vindictive actions of the government between 1971 and 1987?
A week without Daphne has left me weak.
It seems you have prolonged your moderation for my comments forwarded on 08/12/2010. A week has elapsed
I wonder where were you dear Daphne and what has happened to you.
For many of us this blog has become a way of life and we routinely log in each morning (or evening as may be the case). A week without any updates proved this.
Ah there you are finally! Welcome back Daph.