Can you tell me how many more of your children need to be molested or abused sexually before you recognize that sex offenders have a problem and need to be treated for such problem? And secondly, that they need to be known so that your children will not be put at risk? Can you tell mewhen are you going to realize that sex offenders are killers because their victims can never recover and get back to normal?
I sincerely cannot understand how both our advocates and our legislator have not realised that sex offenders scar the lives of our children for the rest of their lives. I cannot understand how their names continue to be banned by our courts, but not the details about the children’s school: as in the case of the school bus driver who showed the sex video to the schoolchildren. His name was not divulged by court order but the court allowed the name of the school to be divulged, the localities where the children came from and the ages of the children.
So child molesters continue to roam our streets without society being given any form of protection. Lo and behold, they are always granted unconditional bail, without any obligation to be supervised by a probation officer and without any psychological report or treatment for their condition. Because sex offenders are sick people who need to be treated.
In Malta we have no sex offenders’ programme as there are in other countries, and this is obvious as we still do not recognize this as a condition which needs to be treated just as we treat persons with alcohol, drug or gambling problems. It is no wonder therefore that these persons tend to be treated as normal in the eyes of the law and in pronouncing judgement, our courts tend to give little weight , if any, to how these offenders can never come back to normal.
In other countries, rape is equated to homicide. In Minnesota, the United Sates, the punishment for rape is the same as the punishment for homicide or murder. The reason being because studies show that the victims of rape practically die from within and it is very difficult for them to ever lead a normal way of life. Not only that, but sex offenders are not just sent to prison, they are obliged to undergo treatment for their condition.
As you are aware, in this country we do not even offer anybody treatment and non-disclosure of the names of the sex offenders “to protect the victims” tends to protect the sex offenders more than the victims. Hats off to the person or persons who had the guts to splash on the Internet the photo of that religious teacher who admitted to the sex charges brought against him. If our courts are not willing to protect our children, that it is the duty of parents and society to intervene where our courts fear to tread.
We all know what happens during a court sitting when the prosecution and the defence discuss the issue of bail. Both parties do their duty but in such cases there is always the third party, and that is the victim or victims who should also be given the right to speak to the court and to convince the court that bail means a licence to continue. The same licence is given to convictions which provide no form of deterrent.
I honestly cannot understand the complacency of some parents who entrust the safety of their children with bus or minibus drivers without enquiring or making sure that they have a valid driving licence, that the bus is properly ensured and that they have been given the green light by the transport authority. We hardly ever see any of them wearing the ADT tag and it is the duty of the parents and the schools to ensure that everything is above board.
I do not know what it takes to become a school bus or minibus driver and it is high time that the ADT issues these regulations so that the parents and the public at large will know what to look for when choosing the transport company to carry their children to school.
We read that the Commissioner for Children is taking the issue very seriously and I am surprised that Appogg or the foundation that runs it has not as yet thought fit to address the problem, first of all by providing a treatment programme for sex offenders, and secondly by bringing the problem to the attention of the members of the judiciary. Unfortunately we all tend to underestimate the gravity of these offences because these are offences where bodily harm is not something that is visible as in the case of a gunshot or stabbing.
Victims of rape are dead persons walking. Victims of other sex offences remain scarred for the rest of their lives and the law is unfortunately on the perpetrator’s side and not on the victims. I agree that in sex charges, psychological reports are to be ordered on the victims because only through these reports can the court understand the gravity of these offences. Victims do not attend every court session, on the contrary, the less they see the person who has rendered their life hell the better and it is, therefore, very easy for the court to fall into the trap of focusing more on the accused than on the victims.
What urgently needs to be done is first to recognise that we have a problem and that this problem needs to be addressed, and thirdly that society has the right to know who are our sex offenders for our safety and the safety of our children.
The registry for sex offenders is a step in the right direction but that is not enough because unless we realise that the offenders need treatment we will be getting nowhere. Programmes for rehabilitation of sex offenders can be found in Europe and in the States and all we need to do is to introduce a rehab programme so that treatment will be a must and part of the punishment.
The religion teacher walked out of court a free man and you and I do not know what he is up to and whether he is now your neighbour playing with your children without you knowing about it. His problem is still there and nothing was done to address this problem. The school bus driver is on bail and we do not know if he is still driving schoolchildren as his license was not suspended by the ADT. It is true that everybody is innocent until proved guilty but suspension of the licence is not tentamount to guilt, it is an administrative precaution that ADT can take in these circumstances.
Our courts need to be persuaded that the charges are not simply the showing of sex videos or the sending of offensive SMSs, but they go deeper. They are charges which leave a scar on the life of our children as long as they live and studies show that if we do not provide counselling to these children to help them get out of this trauma, they will grow into disturbed persons.
Because that is another point, it is not only sex offenders that need help, but also the victims and we never ever read that our courts dare to at least query if the victims need any kind of help to recover from this very bad experience. It seems that our legal system tends to protect more the accused than the victims.
And if society is dragging its feet in stimulating change in the way we treat sex offenders and sex victims, it is the duty of the parents and schools to unite and put pressure on the authorities so that the problem starts to be addressed realistically and not superficially.
Otherwise, we will be telling sex offenders to carry on mucking up our children.