MALTA
Times of Malta
An appeals court this morning dismissed an appeal which was filed by the Attorney General after a defrocked priest was cleared of rape because of an error in the charge sheet about where the act took place.
The mistake had emerged during the proceedings against three priests. A victim testified he had been raped at the St Joseph Home in Ħamrun when the charge gave the location of the crime as having been a home in Marfa.
The former priest, Godwin Scerri, was convicted of abusing boys about 20 years ago and jailed for five years. He was, however, acquitted of the rape charge.
A second former priest, Carmel Pulis, received a six-year jail sentence for also abusing boys. A third member of the same Order, Brother Joseph Bonnett, who had been facing the same charges, passed away during the proceedings. The priests have filed an appeal.
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