Another important comment
Antoine Vella sent in this comment beneath my post about how I think Erin Tanti must have got his claws into Lisa Zahra a lot further back than the start of the school year.
After receiving a sarcastic comment about undue weight being given to an “anonymous” comment like this, I should add the fact that (Dr) Antoine Vella is his real name, and that he teaches at the University of Malta.
You are right about the length of the relationship – it had been going on at least for months.
My 17-year old son was a friend of Lisa Marie Zahra from the drama school. Last July they were part of a small group of students who went on an exchange visit to London and, at the time, she was already involved with Erin Tanti. All their friends knew.
As that anonymous fellow pupil said, Lisa Marie would sometimes skip her own lessons to attend Erin Tanti’s classes, obviously without the school’s knowledge and permission.
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I have some more proof regarding this subject. I was talking to a close friend of hers the day the accident happened and this is what I was told by her friend. I will copy and paste the exact words.
“Everyone knows about their relationship outside school and before he became a teacher.”
This is the sort of evidence that convinces idiots: hearsay from a friend of a friend by an anonymous person on the internet.
[Daphne – Antoine Vella is not an anonymous person. That is his real name and he teaches at the University of Malta: https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/antoinevella ]
I think frodo was referring to the comment by ‘anon’.
[Daphne – Yes, I see that now. It’s still important, though, to point out that you are not anonymous or using a pseudonym.]
There have been others before and since. Even though Tanti has been accused of murdering a girl whom they knew as a contemporary, classmate and friend, some of his former pupils are defending him with the line that he knew her beforehand, at Masquerade.
Anybody with such first-hand information, especially Lisa Maria Zahra’s friends who were ‘in the know’ about the relationship, should pass it on to the police. So doing will not be betraying her memory, but seeking justice on her behalf.
Too many young people – and, shockingly, middle-aged ones too – have sprung to Erin Tanti’s defence. Perhaps, with all the evidence now springing to the surface, they will have a change of heart, and do what is right – not only to protect their friend’s memory, but to ensure that there will be no further victims of the cruel man.
The police would need to clarify procedure and provide water-tight guarantees of non-disclosure of identity.
In today’s world e-reputation would be one of the largest barriers to witness account.
In today’s world, one of the largest barriers to witness account is omertà’ and parental influence. Look at the Mark Vela Gera case.
Vella Gera
@ M.
Whilst I agree with the prevalent mentality responsible for these barriers, change can only be brought about by making the first and next step to take easier.
I found this thread on Twitter that may be of interest:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WhyIDidntReport&src=tyah
I keep thinking about the jacket and how it got to the bottom. I think that will answer many questions.
If Tanti locked the car and the keys were in his jacket pocket, then clearly he was wearing the jacket when they got out of the car. He locked it and put the keys in his pocket.
If Lisa were wearing his jacket at the point when they got out of the car, his car keys would have been found in his trouser pocket.
So at some point between the car and the edge of the cliff, he removed his jacket which held his precious possessions. Why?
“Lisa Marie would sometimes skip her own lessons to attend Erin Tanti’s classes, obviously without the school’s knowledge and permission”.
Excuse my ignorance, but this is unacceptable. The school should have taken disciplinary action against him.
If the friends knew, then the school must have known.
Now, what does the school have to say about all this? What is their liability?
Hi Daphane some of us are unconditionally in love with your opinions. Vera I am one of them. We don’t always share the same views but love reading anything daphene has to say. I am a fan. My love for you is uncondional you may like or dislike us, we will love you me especially. I have always been an unconditional Lover. Great posts what we need is an article on every subject daily from daphene. She is my favorite columnist. Not because I agree with everything its just the way she writes that makes it an interesting read. Write more often daphane. Beautiful. We may not agree but we love to read. And I am a hardcore supporter of the pm u.
Why do I not read ANYWHERE that the school in which she attended and everyone knew of their relationship, being penalized or charged for allowing this to happen
After she jumped or was pushed he had time, money and a passport. Why didn’t he just drive to the airport and take a plane?
oh, and probably a girlfriend waiting for him in Denmark.
His car keys, passport and ferry ticket were in his jacket pocket; hs jacket was near his victim’s body, 40m down the cliff, and he had to retrieve them to see his plans (of escape, lest he be named a paedophile) through. Catch up.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140414/local/updates-same-sex-unions-become-legal-celebrations-in-valletta-opposition-abstains-because-of-adoptions.514992
One of the comments below the article.
‘…Gay adoption has been blown out of proportion! The number of gay couples who can’t have kids of their own is practically zero! Nobody NEEDS to adopt ANYWAY!
99.9% of Lesbians (prefer to and) can already have children of the own, with the help of a male or willing gay friend, a sperm donor or a paid male prostitute.
99.9% of Gays (prefer to and) can already have children of the own, with a female friend, a willing lesbian, or a paid female prostitute.
Today, they mix their sperm and give it to a willing (and paid) surrogate. She hands over the baby 9 months later after giving birth to it at home. All this is done in secrecy and is completely undetectable and the law is unenforceable. The whole process falls outside public scrutiny and the child is registered as “Unknown Mother” when the birth certificate is filled.
So why all the fuss??….’
It continues, the flippancy either bravado or a pitiful analogy to smoking pot. Erm, mixing sperm counts for nothing.
Can the right thinking gay community in Malta please stand up? Or is this place a center of approximation and self-devolution to Muscat’s lowest common denominator?
Or is gay by definition desperate minority? Indeed are all gays happy with the depiction presented here and enforced as the norm?
So the PN and Simon Busuttil should be ashamed, please tell me why.
You must now remain shrill, loud and covered in sequins. And you better adopt.
Gouder, if you think the PN should have done more, where the hell were you?
When will the PN understand Muscat doesn’t lead any agenda simply because he doesn’t have it? If parliament is a place where the mob gathers to force a vote and verbally lynch discernment, no amount of balloons and rainbow colours can attenuate the violence. Because that’s what it was.
I’m not really concerned at Busuttil’s position, feeble at worst, just repulsed how the PN let it drown in Muscat’s gooey substance he calls ‘inclusive politics’.
Gouder, you should have seen it coming. And others in the PN. What’s with the passivity?
Yes, I’m pissed off. At the PN for nitpicking what was a perfectly legitimate argument, leaving it sketchy, any study leading to conclusions overtly expedient, thus inconclusive in any case; therefore by natural logic overdue, and at a splinter silent majority which delegated their very nature to, shall we call them the glitzy ones?
What happens on hunting, I say it on purpose, their thesis is a perversion of your own being; hunters cannot be otherwise, isn’t Muscat to lead then as well?
Bears at 0.50 and they’re not into lovin’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys2wdXWgNl0#t=51
One wonders what function remains of parliament, now that principle has been determined the postGonzi criterion.
Only that it can’t ever be Gonzi’s, at this rate his fault was that of ensuring the divorce vote in parliament. How dare he quote his conflict with principle?
I just hope everyone realises what happened this evening.
Muscat has set the precedent to split this country into controllable interest groups, the opposition goes for a correct, if fragile position, and still Muscat stages his political infallibility. Such is his greed for moral authority.
As for having the good taste to refrain from turning it into a personal vindication, he sets about it by organising lynch mobs to belittle the rights of the minority.
All those ‘editors’ who’ll carry on declaring they have nothing to learn from an opposition which got ‘that’ trashing at the polls, just keep in mind you’re next.
Busuttil has to stop giving credit to a swindler who’ll do anything to kill politics beyond him. The PN to make all the capital possible out of the shameful, dangerous show of strength in St.George’s Square. It’s not victimising oneself, it’s safeguarding the rights of the very same ones who were booing.
The PN starts here. Diction please.
Both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party still have traditional conservative followers, who actually vote, however both parties do not cater that much anymore for the traditional conservative nor for the moral populist. The former is ‘old fashioned’ – which numbers are dwindling steadily – while the latter is being gradually replaced by the liberals, progressives and the globalist elitists.
I would like to also recall a time when Lisa was sick and there was a lesson taking place when Mr Erin’s phone rang and he said “Hi I’m in a lesson I’ll call you back later”.
He then addressed the class and said “This is why you shouldn’t get involved in relationships”.
This clearly shows how he was planning this end for about a month for sure.
I would also like to recall a disturbing moment when the performing arts group went down for a lesson and in the studio with a LOCKED door were Mr Erin and Lisa. I would like to add that he always wore a watch.
Why did none of you report the ‘locked door’ incident? Please report it to the police now, for your deceased friend’s sake.
On TVM yesterday there was a video clip of St Marie Louise Coleiro PRECA (as in San Gorg PRECA) discussing the needs of children and of having a Guardian appointed by the ”experts” ,with a Holy Icon of the Virgin Mary and Baby placed strategically right behind her.
Will the icon be made to face the wall when our most serene and holy religious President of Malta signs the gay marriage and adoption bill that was passed even as 80% of this mostly Catholic country was against it?
The Masquerade summer trip occurs every year .. a 10 year old we know was there and so were both Lisa and Erin.
I am assuming that the 10-year-old you ‘know’ is your child, that the ‘we’ are you and your child’s other parent, and that you both accompanied your child on the same Masquerade trip to the UK last year.
If you noticed anything untoward, however trivial, regarding Tanti on that trip, then it is your duty – as an adult first and as a parent second – to report it to the police.
Tanti has been able to do what he has done, and to end up teaching children – at Masquerade too – because too many people, adults included, have kept mum about his dangerous traits.
Mela ma ssirx ir-rassenja l-iskola? Mela kulhadd jaghmel li jrid, x’ jigifieri ma tmurx il-lezzjoni kif suppost u minflok tmur tal-habib taghha? U jekk l-istudenta attendiet l-iskola u ma maritx ghal-lezzjoni ma jittiehdux passi?
I find it very hard to believe that it was a coincidence that Erin was living in Valletta… Lisa’ used to visit her grandmother who also lives in Valletta . Is it the case that he could see more of her this way without her father noticing? She wouldn’t need an excuse to go to Valletta ?