300 abuse cases await handling by single magistrate

Jan 31 2022

Around 300 domestic violence cases are currently pending before the one magistrate assigned to handle them. According to figures compiled by the law courts, the statistics support concerns that traumatised abuse survivors are waiting up to a year for their cases to reach court.

Since July 2021, Magistrate Lara Lanfranco decided 162 cases, with 278 remaining pending. The magistrate, who has been commended for her hard work, has also inherited cases from another magistrate. This goes over and above her own caseload, resulting in major delays for all cases.

The issue was raised by Nationalist MP and lawyer Jason Azzopardi earlier this month, saying that he had been called to the police headquarters to assist a client, a victim of domestic violence. Police officers informed him that the case would start in January 2023.

Senior lecturer at UOM’s Faculty for Social Well-being Marceline Naudi said that delays getting justice is one of the biggest challenges for domestic abuse survivors. She highlighted how the delays are too long between the day a woman finds the courage to file a police report and the time when the perpetrator is charged in court.

The duration of the court case is also lengthy, which means that the process can drag on for years while the perpetrators may still resort to violence and harassment. A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Ministry revealed that the Court Services Agency had been collecting data on domestic violence cases since July 2021, when Magistrate Lanfranco was assigned to them.

Before this, domestic violence cases were treated as district cases and assigned to various magistrates. A police spokesperson said that since the Domestic Violence unit was set up in October 2020, a total of 2,203 reports were received.

445 reports were received between October and December 2020, and 1,758 were registered in 2021. Following investigations, 142 were arraigned between October and December 2021. In 2021, a total of 1,231 people faced court proceedings for domestic violence.

40 people were found guilty between October 2020 and December 2021. 165 were acquitted while 92 cases were declared as exhausted. A case can be exhausted for several reasons which include victims who refuse to testify against their alleged abuser or those who withdraw their initial criminal complaint.

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700 people reported missing last year in Malta

Jan 31 2022

Malta’s Police Force have received reports of missing persons on a daily basis, with most, fortunately, resulting in positive outcomes.

Last year, the police investigated reports of over 700 people who were reported missing. TVMNews was informed that two of the reports are still being investigated as there is still no indications of the persons concerned.

The most common cases concern the elderly, with Inspector John Spiteri saying that apart from this age group, persons entering Malta as illegal immigrants and minors under a care order who do not return on time consist of the most common missing cases.

The inspector said that police investigations start as soon as the report comes in, because, according to him, those are the most crucial moments to start establishing certain facts about the person and what could have happened.

In the first month of this year, police asked for the help of the public three times. Two were cases wherein two elderly people were missing – a 71-year-old Englishman living in Kerċem and a 76-year-old man from Sliema. They were both found a few hours after the request for assistance was issued.

The public was also asked to help locate a 29-year-old Libyan who was a resident of the Santa Marija rehabilitation centre in Luqa. He was last seen on 28th November, but has not yet been found. Spiteri also said that when a person is reported missing, an alert is triggered in a system to which the police have access throughout the European Union.

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Prime Minister’s Planning Authority retainer doubled to €17,110 a month

Jan 31 2022

Prime Minister Robert Abela’s law firm has more than doubled from €7,300 per month to €17,110 in 2019 through a Planning Authority (PA).

Documents seen by Times of Malta show how Abela Advocates, the PM’s law firm, was paid over €1.2 million in that period for work that is largely handled in-house by the PA. Defending the fees, a spokesperson for Abela said that the very long hours of work carried out by the firm’s lawyers ‘extended also to the weekends.’

Tens of thousands in additional payments from the PA for court fees were paid to Abela Advocates, with the lucrative contract originally assigned to George Abela, the current PM’s father. This was back in 2001, when he was a partner with planning law expert Ian Stafrace in Abela, Stafrace and Associates.

The PA continued extending the contract by giving direct orders to Abela Advocates instead of issuing a fresh call for applications upon its 2011 expiry. The firm only renounced the brief who Abela became prime minister in 2020.

Invoices show that the retainer was fixed at €7,376 per month between 2013 and November 2015. It increased to €12,292 when the law firm also started to represent the PA in Environment and Planning Review Tribunal appeals, which follows the resignation of the authority in-house lawyer for such appeals.

Rising incrementally by 39% between March 2018 and March 2019, it hit €17,110. A spokesperson said that the sums reflected spikes in demand by the authority for legal services as a result of the rise in planning applications filed and ensuing legal issues connected to them.

‘Moreover Abela Advocates was physically present at the authority’s offices on a daily basis. The taxed bill of costs were payable in accordance with the contract for legal services.’

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How to handle bullies | by Ed’s Common Sense

Jan 31 2022

Recent events in Malta have shown that we may not be taking bullying seriously enough. The aggressive and unwanted behaviour, especially amongst youths, is to be condemned and if possible, avoided. That’s why this week, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. Edward Curmi is here to give us a couple of tips on how to handle bullies. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Dr. Edward Curmi is also the author of 2 self-help books titled Ed’s Common Sense.

1. Walk away subtly when the bully approaches you. Try and imagine you’re walking away from a stranger. Act like you don’t care.

9 signs that you are an overthinker

2. When coming close to a bully distract yourself and focus on something completely different.

9 signs that you are an overthinker

3. When the bully approaches you, count to 100 and keep walking. They must never see how upset you are.

4. Never show you are upset. Keep walking and don’t turn around no matter what they say.

5. When a bully tries to upset you if you ever need to say something tell them calmly ‘everyone has a right to their own.’

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