Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1056422
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 NOVEMBER 2018 3 NEWS Letter of Intention The Directors Brendan Borg, holder of Identity Card No.: 171488(M) and Wallace Vella Baldacchino, holder of Identity Card No.: 27589(M), who are working in Partnership, declare their intention to register for an Employment Agency licence in accordance to article 23 of the Employment and Training Services Act, 1990 (Act XXVIII of 1990). The activities proposed to be carried out are the following: 1) Recruitment Consultancy. 2) Interviewing, selection and placements of candidates in employment. 3) Recruitment of persons from abroad to employment in Malta or in an EU member state. 4) Recruitment of persons in Malta for employment in Malta or in an EU member state. 5) Advertising of the filling of vacancies. 6) Keeping a register of applicants for employment. Applicants' Addresses are as follows: Brendan Borg:- No. 2, Triq San Piju, Mgarr, MGR1203 Wallace Vella Baldacchino:- No.7, Triq il-Madonna tas-Sacro Cuor, Sliema, SLM1041 The Office Address of the premises at which the employment agency or employment business is to be carried out is: No. 51, Santa Lucia Street, Valletta, VLT1182 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "The manner in which he replied on Facebook suggests he will go for a second term but Alfred [Sant] has avoided discussing the subject with people around him," the sources said. In a telephone interview on Sunday on One Radio, Joseph Muscat urged Sant, who was in studio, to contest the election. "Please don't leave us on tenterhooks any longer because the country and the party need you. It is ultimately up to you to decide but the country certainly needs an MEP with such ex- perience as Alfred Sant," Muscat said. In a subsequent Facebook post, Sant said it was difficult to ignore an appeal made by the Prime Minister. However, with just two days to go, even Sant's closest aides were unable to speak with certain- ty on the MEP's possible candidature. Sant will turn 71 next February. He contested the European Parliament election for the first time four years ago, obtaining 48,739 votes. But the former prime minister yesterday re- ceived the unlikeliest of support to put his name back into the ring for the election. Sant was encouraged by Nationalist Party MEP candidate Peter Agius to contest the elec- tion as a worthy adversary. In a Facebook post yesterday, Agius, who is a convinced Europhile, praised Sant for his work as an MEP despite the Labour MEP's scepticism over the European project. "Dr Sant was the protagonist of the anti-mem- bership front, so for many pro-Europeans like me, he elicits mixed feelings. But, after seeing him work in the European Parliament and Mal- ta as an MEP, I have to appreciate the extraordi- nary energy he put in to communicate the true Europe to citizens," Agius wrote. Sant also managed to find Malta's interest in lengthy technical dossiers, Agius added. While arguing that he would have expected Sant to take clearer positions on wrongdoing by the Labour government, Agius said it would be good to have an adversary with "ideas of his calibre" in a discussion on how Europe could be used in the best interest of Malta. Muscat urges Sant to contest MEP election MATTHEW AGIUS THE court of Criminal Appeal has confirmed a prison sentence handed to a septuagenarian who was jailed for trading food and money for sexual favours with vulnerable teenage boys. 70-year-old John Zammit had been jailed for three years last August, after he pleaded guilty before a court of magistrates on charges of sexually abusing teenage boys in exchange for food or money. He had filed an appeal, saying the sentence was too severe and had not taken into account his age or his clean criminal record. Madame justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how John Zammit, a Valletta resident who worked at a pastizzi shop, would give two adolescent boys money or food in exchange for oral sex. The police had been notified by means of an anony- mous tip-off and had arrested the man. The accused, who has four children, claimed to have be- come bisexual after being sexu- ally abused by a priest and a po- liceman at a young age. He had sought a normal life "because he feared God," he said. Asked by the court whether he had ever had any sexual en- counters with underage per- sons, he had said that on three occasions he had engaged in oral sex with a 17-year-old boy and would pay him €20 every time. There was also a Maltese 15-year-old whom the man would perform sex acts in front of and a Somali 15-year-old with whom he would perform mutual oral sex. He had made sexual advances to a 13-year- old boy, but was rebuffed, he added. Asked if he knew that what he was doing was wrong, he had replied that he did and was sorry and would not repeat the acts. The court said it felt that the accused should be treated as a person whose mental facul- ties were not impaired. The court quoted Lord Jus- tice Lawton in the case R vs Sargeant: "Society, through the courts, must show its ab- horrence of particular types of crime, and the only way in which the courts can show this is by the sentences they pass. The courts do not have to re- flect public opinion. On the oth- er hand they must not disregard it. Perhaps the main duty of the court is to lead public opinion." Whilst the appellant asked for a reform of his sentence, at no point did he show any sign of reform himself, noted the court, ruling that he therefore represented a threat to society because there is the possibil- ity of him committing similar crimes again. There was no change in the behaviour of the appellant, who had not taken any steps to ad- dress his problem or sought psychiatric help, observed the judge. He never made any re- quest for help. And although the accused was a first-time of- fender, this did not mean that the court had to show clemency towards him, more so when taking into account the fact that the crimes he was found guilty of had shocked society, she said. Ruling that the court must protect weak and vulnerable citizens from such crimes, the judge confirmed the man's sen- tence in its entirety. Jail sentence for 70-year-old sex offender confirmed on appeal Peter Agius