Sexual assault of a child by her father is “not that serious in the hierarchy of sexual crimes” – the future minister of justice
The man who will be minister of justice next year thinks that a sexual assault on a child by her father is not that serious in the hierarchy of sexual crimes.
A police officer in his 50s stands accused of sexual assault on his 11-year-old daughter, forcing her to take part in sexual acts with him, showing her pornography and – inevitably, as a policeman – committing a crime he was in duty bound to prevent.
When the girl told her mother what had happened, she hastily packed a bag and went with her daughter to a women’s shelter run by a charity. She is still there.
The prosecuting officer argued before the magistrate that her colleague in the force should be held on remand, because he would threaten his wife, who is terrified of him.
She also made the point that it would be grossly unfair to allow him to return to the family home, which would force his wife and daughter to remain at the shelter.
This last argument is not quite safe: you cannot deprive a person of his liberty so that others can return to the family home. What you can do is order that he be removed from the family home and obliged to live elsewhere. The safe argument is that he should be deprived of his liberty because if he is not, then he will threaten his wife and daughter and attempt to pervert the course of justice.
In the event, the magistrate ordered that he be held on remand.
His defence lawyer, Jose Herrera (the man who will be Minister of Justice in a year’s time, defending a police officer before a magistrate) argued that his client should be released on bail instead, because although the charges are serious, they are “not that serious when considering the hierarchy of sexual crimes”.
We should not be surprised that he said this and thinks it, because the man and his sister, as we have so vividly seen, appear to operate by an entirely different moral code to what the rest of (normal) society considers acceptable.
I am quite sure they have principles, but I am still looking for them. When I find one, I shall let you know.
But this begs the question: if Jose Herrera ranks a sexual assault on an 11-year-old girl by her 53-year-old father as fairly low in the hierarchy of sexual crimes, what different sorts of sexual crimes would he put above it?
Given that he plans to have himself made Justice Minister, he should speak and operate a little more cautiously. And because he doesn’t notice that his moral code, like that of his sister, is – to put it mildly – a little bit different, somebody sensible at the Labour Party should advise him to consider his words carefully.
How in God’s name can you have a justice minister who has said, on the record and reported in the newspapers, that a sexual assault on a child by her father is not that serious in the hierarchy of sexual crimes?
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Yesterday in court Magistrate Micallef Trigona had to tell off Herrera for fiddling with his mobile phone while the magistrate was addressing him. Even after he warned him, raising his voice in the process, Herrera just picked his phone up and proceeded to read an SMS he received, paying absolutely no attention to what he was being told. Everyone stared at him in what was almost disbelief.
[Daphne – That’s the arrogance that comes with confidence in the knowledge that next year, you are going to be minister of justice and magistrates can tell you off all they like now. But of course, you have to be especially vulgar to take that attitude. So no surprises there.]
That’s not just arrogance; it’s plain boorishness.
How could this man command respect when he is minister?
If he does not respect formal court proceeding like any other mortal, how can he expect from others?
This man is not fit for ministerial office.
Maybe he wanted to impress, like Franco did on Bondi+.
Such boorish behaviour would only be condoned by staunch supporters of the LP and that is why Mintoff appealed to the vulgar masses, because he behaved the same way. Mintoff’s legacy lives on.
If Dr Herrera does not respect court formalities, how do we expect him to respect the electorate and the law?
I would like to hear of a worse sexual crime. Being raped by your own father is far worse than a random rape in a dark corner at night. That happens just once and the victim does not see the rapist any more.
But a daughter being raped by her father in her own home, every time she sees her father, she relives the horrible ordeal.
Rape by a stranger is a 15 minutes affair, rape by a family member is a last as long as she shares the same roof with her rapist father.
I would think that sexual assault on a child by her own father actually ranks top of the hierarchy of sexual crimes, followed closely by any other persons entrusted with the care of minors.
He’s lucky he’s a Maltese member of parliament. If it were the UK, I would bet my last cent that he would be made to resign.
But in Malta, it seems that anything goes.
Should the victim have been my child or grandchild, with a statement like that from ANY lawyer, I vow before God that I would have to be restrained from committing an atrocity.
I’ve had more than enough of criminal lawyers hiding behind the ‘innocence’ presumption to win a case and burden honest citizens with criminals having a field day. That’s why I never vote for criminal lawyers in elections.
How in God’s name can you have a justice minister who has said, on the record and reported in the newspapers, that a sexual assault on a child by her father is not that serious in the hierarchy of sexual crimes?
Simple by having a PL government led by a spineless please-all PM.
What have I won?
I would have thought that since the offender is the father of the victim, the seriousness is aggravated rather than diminished.
Yes, of course it is aggravated – all the more so since the father in question is (was?) also a policeman.
Indeed. It’s not the first time he belittled the horror these children go through.
Remember when he argued that a 14-year-old girl who loses her virginity to an adult is to be considered, in effect, a woman?
What can be deduced is that abuse of minors will not be considered a priority when he’s minister. The implied misogyny is particularly hateful.
At the very least, Deborah Schembri, Marie Louise Coleiro, Justyne Caruana et al should have the decency to speak out against this. I’m not counting on it though.
And what qualifies as serious? To do something like that to your daughters is sick, seriously depraved. Everyone has a right to a defence but this is an serious injustice to the victim.
For once we are in 100% agreement!
It sure warms the cockles of my heart to know that the omniscient James A. Tyrrell is, albeit FOR ONCE, 100% in agreement with common mortals. Truly a day to be remembered.
Where’s the Commissioner for Children? Jose Herrera is not just a lawyer. He is also a Member of Parliament and a shadow spokesman. Such comments from an MP ought to be condemned outright.
Don’t expect Joseph to condemn Herrera’s pearls of wisdom. It took four full years before Joseph woke up and declared the Mosta Council as ‘a failure’.
If it takes him as long to realize how dreadful Herrera’s statement about the gravity of a child’s defilement at the hands of her own father was, by then Jose would be Minister of Justice and Joseph wouldn’t dare criticize a minister he himself had appointed.
U iva.
Flok mal-mara mat-tifla.
Mhux xorta.
Well, technically there are indeed some sexual crimes that “rank higher” than those mentioned in this article in terms of severity of conviction. E.g. rape, child prostitution and aggravated defilement. However the future Minister of Justice should choose his words more carefully in future
Prat(-tikament) Minister of Justice.
Another policeman makes it to the news – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120301/local/court-hears-how-russian-women-were-sold-off-for-prostitution-policeman-among-those-involved.409243
It is surely a mistake of the journalist. Or worse still, we misunderstood him, perhaps deliberately.
Dan skandlu kbir. Imma ghal certu nies xejn m’hu xejn. Forsi ghal tal-Labour hekk tfisser tkun modern.
Tip ta’ nies bhal Jose Herrera anqas fil-parlament ma jixraqilhom ikunu ahseb u ara ministri.
Imma ghal Joseph Muscat b’nies bhal Jose Herrera, Silvio Parnis, Joe Debono Grech, Anglu Farrugia, Karmenu Vella u l-bella kumpanija se jkollna l-aqwa kabinet li qatt kellna gewwa Malta.
Trid vera tkun mohhok maghluq biex tivvota ghal dawn in-nies. PL fil-gvern ikun hafna ghar min dak li kellna fil-Golden Years.
Sometimes I think it’s a professional aberration of criminal lawyers. They believe they can leave decency and morality outside the courtroom and assert whatever happens to be convenient for their client, no matter how distasteful it is.
Past justice ministers AND presidents of both sides included.
I wonder at what type of parties he gets his kicks .
I’d hate to have this man as my daddy.
What an obscene sorry excuse for a man.
I understand that this cretin is prone to ‘bovine anal leakage’ (bullshit), however, these lowest of the low utterings are truly indicative of how cynical and sick he and his ilk can stoop.
Joe Micallef – ‘on the record’ – you stole it from Anglu.
I have repeatedly appealed to Dr Joseph Muscat – yes, admittedly from behind the fictitious name of Min Weber but with full conscience of what I am saying and with some hope that he might listen to my word – that Jose’ Herrera is a menace to society. Dr Muscat please rid your party and Malta of this man of doubtful moral integrity.
Claiming that raping your own daughter is not a serious crime makes me not only shudder, but also start having misgivings about what sort of man Jose’ Herrera is.
I question the wisdom of a system which permits a member of parliament to practise as a criminal lawyer.
I would think that there exists a moral dilemma for lawyers who defend certain criminals whose actions they are duty bound to condemn and legislate against in their role as members of parliament.
The right to be defended by a lawyer is sacrosanct, but we should also expect our members of parliament to avoid conflicts of interest between enacting legislation which makes the lives of criminals more difficult, and their defence of criminals in court.
Typical of the Herreras.
You implement wide-ranging changes to a bus system, that suffer from inevitable teething problems, and they call for your head.
A young girl is abused and it is deemed “not that serious when considering the hierarchy of sexual crimes” and nothing is said about it.
Wake up, Malta!
Kumment bhal dak mil-ministru futur tal-gustizzja hu ta tkexkix.
Dan hu ezempju tal x’jifhem bil kelma “LIberali Progressive” , il-moviment gdid ta’ Joe Muscat?
TAL -MISTHIJA!
Is Joseph Muscat planning to make space in his skip for all those who believe that sexually assaulting young blood relatives “is not that serious in the hierarchy of sexual crimes” ?
My oh my , how liberal , modern , progressive u imdawwlin we are becoming.
Mohhok biss biex taqbad ma Jose Herrera….he is just doing his job. I condemn child molesters but after all Jose is just doing his job that’s all.And what’s the topic about? sexual assault or Jose Herrera?
Yes, he’s just doing his job. Lowering himself to the same level of the defendant. Another decadent.
Bil-ligi ghandu dritt li jigi japprezentat minn avukat skond l-Unjoni Ewropeja u jekk ma jaghmiliex Jose jaghmilha avukat iehor u tparlax izjed fil-vojt Daphne.
[Daphne – Id-dritt ghal difiza m’ghandux jaqsam mal-Unjoni Ewropea. Avukat iehor ma jkunx ministru prospettiv tal-gustizzja.]
Dan liema roundabout hu? Ta’ Hal-Luqa?
The soldiers guarding the death-camps and killing Jews were “only doing their job” too.
Voldieri qed tissuggerixxi li bniedem li jidhol ghal politika jieqaf jahdem ghal kollox? just in case xi darba jsir ministru?
Kien hawn min sar ministru u baqa jaghmel xoghol minn taht tahseb li haddiehor ghandu jieqaf minn QABEL ma jilhaq? Hallina. darb ohra ghid li li kieku kien haddiehor din kienet tkun non issue bhal ma tkun non issue meta jiddefendu kriminali avukati ohra, bhal min jiddefendi lilek wara kollox.
[Daphne – No, I did not say that MPs should stop doing all other work. On their current salary, they can’t do that. But working as a criminal lawyer is in direct conflict with serving as a legislator. That much should be obvious. Really it is any type of law-related work that is in conflict (you shouldn’t make the law that is going to be your stock in trade) but criminal law is by far the worst, because there are social implications too. Pulling teeth and giving Botox injections, as Jeffrey does, is not in conflict with being a legislator.]
what this argument has turned into now is a far cry from the subject matter of the article itself I hope you realize that. In any case, it is still ONE mp, no one mp takes it upon himself to enact all the laws, so how can one mp be guilty himself of being in conflict of interest? would you rather have all lawyers renounce from politics then? what exactly is your point? keep in mind the policeman is not the first and wont be the last person to be accused of defiling minors… there were priests accused of the same (and rape, but for a mistake in the the procedure) and who was the lawyer then…? ah, that is why no similar article was written then. take off your mask :)
Roundabout – Hadd m’hu qed jitkaza li dan il-persuna kellu avukat, u anqas xi hadd qal li m’ghandux ikollu avukat ghax f’pajjiz demikratiku dak huwa dritt ta’ kull cittadin.
L-argument u l-kritika hija dwar x’qal l-avukat tieghu, li f’dan il-kaz inzerta Hose Herrera, li fil-pozizzjoni li jokkupa fil-PL u x’qed jaspira li jilhaqq, il-moghd kif ipprova jiddefendi lil-klijent tieghu f’dan il-kaz huwa dispregjattiv u tal-misthija, u ma’ tixraq lil ebda avukat li jkun tal-affari tieghu.