Sexual offenders could be slipping through the net in the absence of a centralised register accessible by different entities, the head of the Church’s Safeguarding Commission has warned.
Andrew Azzopardi told The Sunday Times of Malta that the only way for an offender to end up on the official register, which bars them from working with children, was for victims to brave court proceedings – something most were reluctant to do.
Even once this was done, it was at the magistrate’s discretion to decide whether or not to add offenders to the list.
“The problem is that we have victims who don’t want to go to the police and don’t want the matter to end up in court. In fact, most of those who come forward to us don’t want to go to court,” Mr Azzopardi said.
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Victims, he added, were reluctant to go through legal proceedings as they often wound up in the news.
“Even if the names are left out it can become quite obvious who the case concerns and this is very discouraging for victims who are considering speaking out,” he said.
Mr Azzopardi explained that the commission, which investigates claims of alleged abuse and neglect by...
