Malta’s ambassador to Ireland, Richard Muscat, submitted his resignation on Friday after the Irish press named his 35-year-old son, Massimo, who is accused of an alleged sexual assault on two women in Dublin 10 months ago.
MaltaToday can reveal that Muscat kept news of his son’s arrest and police interrogation last October a closely guarded secret, not even informing Foreign Minister Michael Frendo when he came to be reappointed ambassador earlier this month.
“Richard only informed me yesterday (Friday) about this case, as his name surfaced in the Irish press,” the minister said when contacted yesterday evening, shortly after making the resignation public. “I had no idea about it.”
The news has jolted the foreign ministry with the damning press reports just hot on the heels of the Opposition’s outcry at Muscat’s reappointment despite the National Audit Office’s report detailing his squandering of public funds when he headed radio station Voice of the Mediterranean, which went bankrupt under his management.
Clearly disappointed by Muscat’s serious sin of omission, the minister is said to have considered the case an extremely embarrassing one particularly in view of the young Muscat’s right to diplomatic immunity, preventing Irish police from prosecuting against him.
The story fuelled outrage in Ireland as one of the victims, 20-year-old Christina Leech-Cleary, came out publicly denouncing Massimo Muscat’s immunity status that kept him outside the reach of law for the last 10 months. Diplomats and members of their families have immunity from criminal jurisdiction and this applies to all offences, serious or otherwise.
Leech-Cleary claimed she was about to be raped by Muscat last October when he dragged her down a laneway near Herbert Park and put his hand down her top. The victim, a Trinity College Irish language student, managed to escape while screaming in fear and reported the incident to the gardai – the Irish national police. But Muscat reportedly assaulted another woman just a few minutes later on the side of the road.
Muscat was arrested and interrogated by the police but investigators have recently informed the woman that their “hands were tied” because he was the son of a diplomat. The police said they have launched an investigation into the incident and a file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In his resignation letter, Muscat insisted that his son was the victim of “unfounded and defamatory attacks”.
“However, as ambassador, I must take into consideration the effects of these attacks on my work within the embassy,” Muscat wrote. “I feel these attacks are, and would continue, alienating me from my work as Maltese Ambassador in Ireland. … For these reasons, while reiterating my son’s innocence and reserving my personal liberty to defend my son’s name, I feel it is appropriate in the circumstances, as developed in the media and consistently with my work in Malta’s interests, to resign from my position as Malta’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland.”
Attempts to contact Muscat yesterday proved futile but in an interview with the Irish Daily Mail he denied he had invoked diplomatic immunity to get his son off the charges.
In the interview, Muscat said his son was suffering from a mental condition and had not intended to harm or distress the two women who made sexual assault allegations against him.
“My son is not a monster,” Muscat said. “It is not fair that he be crucified for what happened. It was just an innocent situation and unfortunately he frightened these women.”
The ambassador said his son had “flatly denied” carrying out any sexual assaults.
“He was interviewed by the police and he contradicted the allegations made against him,” Muscat said. “Unfortunately my son has a medical condition. He has never been in trouble before. He doesn’t have a girlfriend. He stays at home. He is a quiet guy. He is not a monster. But he is receiving treatment and is dependant on me and my wife. He goes with us wherever we go.”
Muscat – a former junior minister under Fenech Adami’s administration – sympathised with the terrified women’s reaction to his son’s advances but insisted that “the situation was very innocent”. He said the Irish police had received a doctor’s evaluation of his son’s mental health as part of the investigation.
Meanwhile the foreign ministry contacted the Irish embassy yesterday, informing it that while no diplomatic immunity had been invoked, it was waiving Massimo Muscat’s immunity “with regards to the continuation of any investigations and/or judicial proceedings and their outcome”.
On Friday, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it was “deeply conscious of the serious nature of the matter which has been under investigation by the gardai and of the trauma experienced by those affected”.
Also on Friday, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said it was “totally unacceptable” that diplomatic immunity could put sexual predators outside the law’s reach.
O’Malley-Dunlop urged the embassy to take “appropriate steps to deal with this person”.
“It’s shocking that nothing can be done for this woman and it is terribly sad for her,” she said. “It’s bad enough that we are in a situation where we are encouraging people to come forward and report these crimes to gardai. Sex attacks are one of the most underreported crimes in our country. The fact that a woman experienced this horrific situation and has no form of redress is appalling. The fact that this woman has come forward to report the crime is really heartening as so few women do. I would commend her for her courage and would hope the law would protect her. It’s outrageous and totally unacceptable if nothing can be done.”
This is the second ambassador to leave office under Frendo. Two years ago, Malta’s ambassador to China, Saviour Gauci, was removed from the Foreign Service amidst controversy about “easy visas” for students to Malta who would then be illegally trafficked to Sicily by powerboats.

kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt