Paedophile priest in St Joseph Home scandal applies for parole

MALTA
Malta Today

Tim Diacono 30 August 2015

A defrocked priest who was convicted of sexually abusing boys at the former St. Joseph Home in Santa Venera in the 1980s has applied for parole, Sunday newspaper Illum has reported.

If parole is granted, it would mean that Carmelo Pulis would only have spent half of his six-year prison sentence behind bars.

Police investigations into allegations of paedophilia by three members of the Missionary Society of St. Paul commenced in 2003, after one of the victims, Lawrence Grech, went public about the abuse he suffered while residing at St. Joseph’s Home. Other victims eventually followed his suit, and the scandal let to the home’s closure later that year.

In 2011, Pulis, 78, and Godwin Scerri, 78, were defrocked and jailed for five and six years respectively after a court found them guilty of sexually abusing ten boys in their care in the 1980s.

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