MALTA
Times of Malta
Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that this court case is finally over.
Two former priests who have used every legal tool at their disposal to drag out a very sad episode will finally go to prison for abusing children in their care after an Appeals Court confirmed their convictions yesterday.
Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis, formerly members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, were sentenced in August 2011 to five and six years’ imprisonment respectively for sexually abusing boys in their care at St Joseph Home in Santa Venera. However, rather than show contrition for what they had done, they chose to prolong the pain for their victims.
Their approach, though legally permissible, was not morally commendable – even if at the conclusion of the appeal yesterday the presiding judge found that the charges filed in relation to one of the victims against Mr Pulis was time-barred and that Mr Scerri was not guilty of abusing one of the boys from several who made allegations. Ultimately, this was of little consequence because Mr Justice David Scicluna felt it made no difference to the prison sentences they were handed by a magistrate last year.
The primary relief comes for the victims themselves. The incidents took place many years ago and all of them now are grown men, some with families of their own. But their psychological scars have been clearly visible throughout. These are the indelible marks that the former priests have left on these human beings.
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