(MALTA)
MaltaToday [San Ġwann, Malta]
August 28, 2026
By Kurt Sansone
Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma will not take action against priest, who admitted influencing family’s decision to drop rape charges against men who abused of their minor daughter • Teuma says priest’s intervention was ‘unwise’ and he would have acted otherwise today
Updated with statement from Victim Support Malta at 2:50pm
The Gozo Diocese will take no action against Fr Michael Said despite the priest admitting to influencing a family to drop rape charges against their daughter’s abusers.
Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma said in a video statement on the Gozo Diocese Facebook page on Friday he reached this conclusion after receiving two investigative reports into the case. The rape of the 14-year-old girl by four men happened in 2008 and resurfaced last March.
“There was influence by the priest on the family that led to the case being dropped. The original testimony of the parents, and the signature of the priest, along with others, in the settlement agreement, show this. Today, we say this intervention was not a wise decision and the priest realises this and states that today, he would have acted otherwise,” Teuma said.
However, despite describing the priest’s intervention in the rape case as unwise, Teuma said the influence “did not amount to intentional pressure” and Fr Said’s actions were motivated by the family’s wellbeing.
The bishop said from the family’s testimony it resulted that it was the family that sought the priest’s help at the time of the abuse because he already had a pastoral relationship with them.
“This means that initially, the priest was not called into the matter by the family of the alleged aggressors. It results that although the priest signed the settlement agreement with others, which was formulated by a lawyer, it wasn’t he who came up with the idea of the agreement and he did not negotiate any sum of money that had to be paid for the judicial process to come to an end,” Teuma said.
The bishop said he was taking the “just” advice given by the two investigative commissions that “there is no need to take any canonical action against the priest”.
Fr Said was never charged with any wrongdoing and was not involved in the abuse on the minor.
Rape case goes back to 2008
The case goes back to 2008 but resurfaced last March after the Appeals Court confirmed the acquittal of brothers Mark Lorry Said, Peter Paul Said and Josef Said, and their friend, Peter Paul Debono. They were charged with sexually abusing and raping a 14-year-old girl in 2008.
The Said brothers are the siblings of former Nationalist MP Chris Said. Fr Michael Said is a relative of theirs.
The acquittal was down to the fact that the victim as an adult accepted to drop the charges in 2017 and 2020, after an out of court settlement worth €120,000 was reached. This meant the police could not pursue the case on their own steam since the law in 2008, when the abuse happened, did not allow such a possibility if the abuse happened on private property.
Back in 2008, Fr Michael Said was one of the intermediaries in an attempt by the accused to buy the victim’s silence with a €7,000 offer.
The family did withdraw the complaint a day later, a decision that caused the rape charges to be extinguished, even though the family later told the court they acquiesced under duress and regretted accepting the payment.
In his statement on Friday, Teuma said one of the investigations into the case was carried out by the Gozo Diocese Safeguarding Commission to determine whether there were any risks involving the priest’s work in schools. The second investigation was carried out by a board set up by the bishop that was composed of a retired judge, a lawyer and a judge on the tribunal of the Maltese Archdiocese.
READ ALSO | Gozo church commission ‘processing’ case of priest who brokered rape case deal
Teuma said that before reaching his conclusion he assessed the court judgment, read through the sworn declarations presented by the parties, read the two investigative reports, heard the family, spoke to the alleged victim and Fr Said himself.
Commenting on the decision not to take canonical action against Fr Said, Teuma said: “I feel in this way we will be doing justice, not only with the priest but also with the family of the alleged victim that throughout the years until today maintained a good relationship with the priest, and do justice with the many people who know the priest and know what a good heart he has.”
READ ALSO | Editorial: Rape, silence and a priest
Victim Support Malta: ‘Victims deserve both support and justice’
“Money, influence or private arrangements must never prevent allegations, particularly those involving a child, from being heard by the courts,” Victim Support Malta said in a reaction on Friday,
The NGO highlighted that when accountability is avoided, those responsible can move on without consequences, while victims continue to live with the psychological effects of what was done to them every day.
They referred to the alleged rape of the minor, which they say was never examined by the courts because a priest persuaded the alleged victim to accept money “for therapeutic care” instead of going through the trauma of court proceedings.
“Therapeutic support is vital in helping victims of sexual violence heal, but it can never replace justice,” they said
Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday.