These belong in the dinosaur park with Josie ‘men who beat their wives are provoked’ Muscat
timesofmalta.com, this morning:
COURT SAYS GAY JIBE NOT ACCEPTABLE IN LOCALITIES LIKE MELLIEHA
Accused conditionally discharged despite seriously injuring man
A Mellieha man who seriously injured an Australian who implied he was gay, got off with a conditional discharge today after the court considered he had been provoked, and that the perceived insult might not have been acceptable in a locality like Mellieha.
The incident happened in the early hours of March 21, 2004.
The court heard that Alan Gauci, 36, had been in a bar when with Australian Jeremy Lalic insinuated that he (Gauci) was gay.
In his police statement the accused admitted he was fuming as he left the bar and started heading home, and he admitted thinking that the Australian deserved to be hit by a car.
As he drove home, he saw Lalic and ran him over, causing him serious permanent injuries.
During the proceedings, the prosecutor said he did not think the incident would have happened had there not been provocation.
Magistrate Carol Peralta in his sentence said that the court agreed with what the prosecutor had said about provocation, more so when one considered not only the nature of the incident, but where it had taken place and the mentality of society there.
The accused was a resident of Mellieha and, to his mind, he had a reputation to safeguard. While there was nothing wrong in being gay, the fact that the imputation was made before the people of Mellieha might, in the mind of the accused and the people of the locality, have been unacceptable.
In view of the provocation that was made, the cooperation of the accused, the absence of a criminal record and the passage of time, the court decided to reduce the punishment by two grades.
However, the court underscored the seriousness of what had taken place and said the accused should thank God that the victim survived.
The accused was then conditionally discharged for three years.
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The mind boggles! Such convoluted reasoning by both prosecution and magistrate. Why did the prosecution even bother bringing the case to court?
Well said!
Am I the only one in Malta who is not surprised by the sentence handed out by this magistrate?
Many people used to be shocked witnessing him insulting his then girlfriend in front of his children, family and friends, calling her all sorts of names under the sun with colourful language.
He was “provoked” by her because she thought he was drunk or she did not laugh at his jokes, etc.
Justice. Indeed.
@ To Our Honourable Law Courts
Can you kindly state where the local mentality is open to such remarks on our island? That would save me a great deal of hassle, especially, when I am driving on Maltese roads.
A reply shall be, oh, so greatly appreciated, especially from His Honour, Magistrate Peralta.
Ghax il-Mellieha wara l-muntanji ghalhekk jiehdu ghalihom!! Ara veru m’hemmx fejqan ghalina…hbatna il-qiegh
J’alla tal-Mellieha biss, jiehdu ghalihom.
Are you referring to the accused, the magistrate or maybe both? In this case both actions, the insult and the violent reaction are to be condemned. Unfortunately the court judgement may send the wrong message. Provocation may mitigate but should not justify violence.
This sentence should be appealed by the attorney general. The magistrate was out of his dept when he gave this sentence.
We’ll soon see an influx of criminals or potential ones flooding to Mellieha.
This is just another example of the soft bigotry of low expectations that exists throughout Malta.
It’s not just in this case, but in many cases, where we blame the victim because “well, what do you expect?”
Someone attacks a person like this and the judge thinks “the perceived insult might not have been acceptable in a locality like Mellieha.”
I guess when someone thinks “that the Australian deserved to be hit by a car” we should all show understanding of such low levels of behaviour and accept it like it doesn’t really matter.
It matters. Much of what is wrong in Malta is because of this attitude.
Supporters of a party blackmail a journalist. “What do you expect?”
Supporters of a party send death threats to people who didn’t like their Communist leader. “What do you expect?”
The list goes on and on. It must stop.
well, well well, the intelligence of men knows no bounds I see. At the rate we are going, it’s not a quota share for women that is needed, but a ban on men in influential positions.
Quota share for women? It’s not a quota that’s needed, but rather more family friendly measures; namely maternity benefit paid by the government not the employer, and free Children Day Centres.
That way you’ll get more women working. I would also stop all other benefits to single mothers except the ones mentioned above. Let them work for their offspring I say.
Anyway, quotas for women mean discrimination against men. Take care of the family issues and you’ve got an equal playing field.
This can be one hell of a scary country.
This is wrong on so many levels.
Following this sentence, these are the messages that the Maltese Law Courts are sending out:
a) It is ok to react to jibes/insults with violence. You are only a victim, and the one you try to maim is the aggressor. They had it coming!
b) Being called gay is an insult. The courts will be compassionate and forgive you, because, how dare they suggest that (God forbid!) you are a homosexual?
c) The interpretation of the law depends on factors such as your education, class or residence. Two weights, two measures. If you have not been very lucky with either, the courts will show compassion and you might just get away with anything.
d) It is OK to commit certain types of crimes in some localities in Malta, but not in others. Just pick your spot wisely.
What a joke, seriously! As a toungue-in cheek form of retort, the Mellieha local council should consider a ban on this lovely Magistrate, forbidding him to enter or even pass through their town; one of the nicest, and in my experience open-minded, in the country.
Hang on a minute. Would Alan Gauci have been handed a three-month prison sentence if the bar had been in some sophisticated hangout like St Julians or The Gardens?
Carol Peralta, you are a moron. Now go ahead and sue me.
To be fair to Josie Muscat, he did not say that men who are provoked are justified in using violence against their spouses.
He simply said that in many cases continued provocation results in violence, which is basically nothing but a statement of fact.
I believe his point was to emphasise that treating the problem in a holistic manner would give better results that putting the entire blame squarely on the shoulders of the husband no matter the circumstances.
What a bag of shit.
You talking to me? Dude I’m cleaner than a squeaky door. The smell you’re getting must be closer to home.
Your belief is naive. Josie Muscat deliberately shifted blame for the problem of violence against women to the women themselves.
I will not dare comment on this court judgement.
For obvious reasons.
But, for God’s sake, this circus in this pathetic country cannot go on for ever.
With a few nice words and alot of emotion everybody can be turned into a victim. That’s what’s wrong with this country.
I don’t believe it! Please tell me the Times reported it incorrectly.
That was quick Daphne, thanks! I couldn’t say much earlier because I hate pecking away at the phone.
I actually read this and had to re read it twice as I honestly could not believe what the report was saying.
I think it is opportune to point out at this stage that this hasn’t much to do with being gay although I can understand why anyone who is gay might feel put out. I certainly was anyway.
But in fact it is not implied that the victim was gay himself. Additionally it is not the magistrate’s observation on the mentality of (a) certain part/parts of Malta because it is a sad but true state of affairs in this country of ours.
It is the course Peralta took to arrive to his conclusion and thence the sentence he handed down on that basis that shocks or rather, should shock, anyone with a sense of decency, to the core.
I expect everyone, from the gay lobby through to the Mellieha local council and all the way up to the Ministry of Justice itself, to pronounce themselves on this judgement.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. But we must be stark raving mad if we let this appalling lack of judgement sail past without batting an eyelid.
The repercussions are mind boggling and indeed threaten one of the cornerstones of a civilized society namely, the rule of law itself not to mention the common good. For starters it brings our legal system and courts into disrepute.
This was a case of attempted murder for God’s sake. A human being could have ended up dead, and not simply with their car tyres slashed or the facade of their house daubed with paint.
But worse still, it sets a dangerous precedent in any future trial. It places certain individuals – as decided by the presiding judge or magistrate in a case – above the law and has the capacity to excuse or justify any sort of devious or criminal behaviour.
Surely Magistrate Peralta knows that every sentence handed down by our courts enters the realm of convention, thus allowing it to be used as a reference point and a bench mark when judgement is being handed down in future cases. Similarly defence lawyers also refer to sentences handed down on other occasions to aid the accused’s chances.
So, to follow Peralta’s line of reasoning, I can already picture an infinite number of scenarios with the accused’s excuse being on the lines of “Oh I battered his head in because he said I’ m shorter than he is and height (or rather the lack of it) is a sensitive issue for me”.
Or, “I raped her because I can’t resist a woman when she is wearing a short skirt”. Or “She was unfaithful to me and it is a bad reputation to be a cockold where I’m from so I stabbed her repeatedly and poured toilet clearer over her wounds”. (Actually Daphne this last one seems to be ringing a bell. You wouldn’t know if it happened for real by any chance?)
[Daphne – Yes, it did. The victim was Diane Gerada. Her husband stabbed her more than 50 times, starting when she was lying in bed with their two-year-old child next to her. She crawled onto the balcony to try to call for help and collapsed. He went to the bathroom, brought back lavatory cleaner, and poured it over her. Meanwhile, their older children were trying to ring the police, but tragically, the number they tried was the one they saw on television crime series: 911. He got seven years, because he was provoked beyond measure by finding a condom missing from a packet and assumed that she had used it with somebody else because she hadn’t used it with him.]
I think it is no exaggeration to say that, today, is a sad day for the rule of law in Malta. We bend and twist the rules to suit our perverted and twisted sense of self. There is always an excuse for every selfish, self- serving, sick and irresponsible act that is committed in this country. Over- inflated egos seem to be a national characteristic but this seriously takes the p***.
We profess to be European, and some of us may actually look European, but when it comes to mentality we are just about as European as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Likewise we are so proud of our centuries old law courts and legal system, yet we wouldn’t know the role and purpose of the law in a civilised society if it slapped us right across the face.
It is not my wish to politicise this issue and I sincerely hope I won’t be misunderstood, but Fenech Adami dealt with a situation that was not dissimilar when the police commissioner refused the PN permission to hold a meeting in Zejtun in 1986 on the basis that there were too many Labour party supporters in Zejtun.
That went to court as well and the court’s pronouncement on that one was that if the police had information that certain individuals intended to break the law if a PN meeting was held in Zejtun, then was the commissioner’s duty to do everything within his power and as far as the law allowed to stop these individuals from doing so rather than ban the meeting.
No Siree.. we have no fudge packers here in Mellieha.
Apart from this ridiculous news from our courts, there was another story today about a man being jailed for 3 years for shooting somebody else in the face.
Apparently, the jurors felt it was ‘excusable’ because he acted out of ‘sudden passion’. So bloody what? He shot another person in the face, and whether it was cold-blooded rationality or a moment of rage, what difference does it make to the victim?
What were these jurors thinking?!
IMPORTANT Disclaimer – this blog is not to be consumed literally. If you lack the sarcastic gene, please skip to the crosswords.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121010/blogs/do-not-call-me-gay.440357
I have a bright idea.
If you want to teach someone a lesson he will never forget, all you need to do is take him to Mellieha, get him to call you pufta and then proceed to maim him with impunity.
I think, in future, law-makers should attach a list of towns and villages, where such laws are applicable.
What a disgrace. What an unbelievable judgement. Magistrate Peralta’s women must have gone through hell, with an attitude like his.
Maybe he got this attitude from Kosovo, being a Muslim enclave or is it a fully fledged state now.
Well, if you appoint people like him to the bench, then what do you expect?
In all fairness to Dr Josie Muscat he did not approve that husbands beat their wives because they had been provoked. He merely stated a fact as observed by him.
Then he should have expressed clearly what he meant to say. In my book, Dr Muscat meant what he said – Men who beat their wives up, would have been provoked by their wives.
Surely sends out the wrong message. Malta must rank high where domestic violence is concerned and no wonder, with people reasoning like Dr. Muscat.
I wonder if he would have said that, if his daughters fell victims of domestic violence. These men are a shame to the Maltese people. Export them to Libya, not just for business only, and keep them there.
Can the Attorney General appeal this judgement ?
Excuse me, what was that about the law being equal to all?
Kemm qeghdin tajjeb ukoll.
U jien rasi mistrieha li ghandna gudikatura ta min joqghod fuqha.
L-iblah li jien.
Is this the same magistrate about whom there was talk of impeachment for freemasonry?
If our journalists were to do their job properly and dig deep into past judgements this magistrate has handed out, one might not be so surprised by this latest saga.