Mr Justice, I enjoyed reading your “Le Mie Vicende”. RIP.

I agree with Grezz that the jury system has its defects and we should consider if it should be scrapped or changed. Daphne should insane criminals be kept in prison? Should we have a separate forensic hospital? Or should we have a mental health facility or section in prison?

[Daphne – If had prisoners who were criminally insane, then what we would require is a prison for the criminally insane. But we don’t have prisoners who are criminally insane. What we have is a ‘forensic unit’ at the psychiatric hospital which, because we never have any criminally insane prisoners, is used instead to hold privileged prisoners like Noel Arrigo, Joshue Gauci and one Andrew Sullivan.

This is clearly abusive, because that is not a prison but a treatment ward for prisoners who need psychiatric treatment. There will always be prisoners who need psychiatric treatment, just as there will always be prisoners who need other forms of medical treatment. The general hospital does not have a forensic unit, and the psychiatric hospital does not need one either.

Prisoners at the general hospital are on the main wards under 24-hour police guard. Prisoners at the psychiatric hospital should be able to use the normal secure wards that exist for patients who, while not being prisoners, still need to be locked up because they are a danger to themselves and others. The Forensic Unit should be scrapped because it offers nothing but scope for corruption and abuse while serving no real or viable purpose. So what if we were to have a criminally insane prisoner one time, you ask? Well, given that people like this are generally locked up for life (not 25 years), the obvious solution is incarceration in a secure cell at the psychiatric hospital. In Malta, there is no ‘life sentence’, as you know, so he’ll have to be kept in a psychiatric hospital under a different form of court order.]

“‘Vera ta’ li ghamel hazin hu, imma hi gennitu’.”

If the latter part of that statement was ever heeded by all married persons then almost every spouse (of either sex) and children from all marriages would meet with a foul end.

Luckily, most sane and mature people in any relationship, no matter how normal or unsavoury it is, do not follow the Erin Tanti route.

There was something more sinister at work here.

Yes, he also shot his much-beloved dog dead.

Exactly.

Due to lack of education on the subject many people are unaware that a number of personality disorders could be easily treated by therapy. In 2014 they still think that to seek the help of a therapist one needs to be totally mad, then when the problem escalates to a major depression they pay a visit to their GP who in return prescribes anti-depressants, and it stops there.

No wonder the population is getting sadder and more miserable with each day that goes by.

Tanti was Zahra’s teacher. Dating a pupil is a crime, and not just because she’s a minor.

Someone should really bring up that fact to a bit more often (perhaps after the actual case is over). This is what passes for ‘liberal’ and ‘artistic’ for Jo, people who are deviant and ‘rebellious’ to the point that they actually lack any moral compass.

The scariest thing is that it was a woman who wrote that comment.

I have been thinking about this comment since I read it yesterday because it is so true.

And frightening, that we all live in the same community that so easily manifests this dangerous streak: protect the criminal wrong-doer and shrug upon the victim.

The mentality exposed is one normally kept relatively safe beneath the thin veneer of respectability, joviality, and media spin and yet when the dagger jams in position, so many are ready to proclaim the villain as the hero.

Is the mentality so because one is already so used to covering things up (at home, within the family, between sectors of society) that the codes for right and wrong have switched?

It’s been known to happen: Some cultures shake their heads to say “yes” and nod to say “no.” An example of this is Bulgaria where to avoid religious persecution they outwardly negated or affirmed the opposite faith to the one actually held.

The code switch remains to this day, only people have forgotten how it arose historically.

Whenever the victim is a woman (even if she is actually a girl) you can rest assured that some really disgusting victim-blaming is bound to happen. Especially in a misogynistic society like Malta’s.