MaltaToday previous editions

4 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 MARCH 2019 MATTHEW AGIUS A child molester who groped two sisters had his jail term reduced to a suspended sen- tence, after a judge ruled he had not been accused of the correct offence. Alfred Xerri, 79, had been sentenced to three years in prison when he was convicted in 2013 of having corrupted the two young girls aged eight and nine. The incident happened at Pretty Bay in August 2009. A police report had been filed in 2009 stating that the two sisters, had been at the beach when they saw a man swim- ming and pushing some small dogs on a lilo. The curious children had commented on how cute the dogs were and the man had agreed, before groping both sisters' genital areas for several seconds. "He was going to [put his hand under my swimsuit] but I didn't let him," one of the sisters, tes- tifying via videoconferencing, had told the court. The accused had tried to pull her back but she swam away. Her sister had also described to the court how the man had done the same to her and then made her promise not to tell her mother that he had touched her. The children had told their mother of the incident later that evening as she was bath- ing them and the parents went straight to the police, who ar- rived at the conclusion that it was Xerri, who is known as il- Uomo. Xerri, who consistently de- nied any wrongdoing, filed an appeal against his conviction, his lawyer insisting that the touching was "entirely acci- dental" and that in a worst-case scenario it would constitute the crime of violent indecent as- sault. The crime of corruption of minors requires acts "of a cer- Child molester's prison sentence reduced on appeal JAMES DEBONO THE heritage authority is asking the Excelsior Hotel to "restore dignity" to human remains from an Orthodox cemetery buried beneath the staff carpark. The call from the Superintend- ence for Cultural Heritage comes in a reaction to the Floriana ho- tel's proposed 99-room exten- sion. According to the plans, the staff carpark is earmarked for a bar and restaurant. It originally consisted of a Greek Orthodox cemetery whose historical monuments were bull- dozed "possibly with a permit and a title" to the land in ques- tion, when the original Excelsior development took place, the Su- perintendence said. The heritage authority is now calling on the present owners to show corporate responsibility by granting "dignity and respect" for human remains that are still be- neath the carpark. The authority is also calling on the hotel owners to reinstate and restore the area to its original state. In the latest proposal, the ho- tel has dropped plans submitted last year to accommodate an ex- tra 196 rooms by increasing the height of the hotel to 12 storeys. Instead the current plans are limited to the construction of a new wing consisting of 99 rooms. The development also foresees a new bar and restaurant area along Triq Sir Hannibal P. Sci- cluna. The Superintendence has called for photomontages of the latest plans to be in a position to assess the impact of the new wing on the historical landscape. Four cemeteries were once lo- cated around the Floriana bas- tions. The Msida Bastion Cemetery is the only surviving cemetery. The other three burial grounds, the Quarantine, Greek Orthodox and Cholera cemeteries, were de- stroyed. Excelsior owners asked to 'restore dignity' to Orthodox cemetery buried below carpark YANNICK PACE MALTA scraped the bottom of the fertility league table in the EU, figures out yesterday showed. In 2017, Malta's fertility rate stood at 1.26, the lowest across the European Union, Eurostat said. Spain came after Malta with a fertility rate of 1.31, followed by Cyprus and Italy, both at 1.32. The average across the EU's 28 member states was 1.59, while the highest rate was reg- istered in France (1.9). The total fertility rate is de- fined as the average number of children who would be born to a woman during her lifetime, if she were to spend her child- bearing years conforming to the age-specific fertility rates, which have been measured in a given year. As a general rule, for a popu- lation to remain stable, it is assumed that a fertility rate in the region of 2.1 is needed. According to the data, the average age of first childbirth for Maltese women is 29. On average in the EU, wom- en who gave birth to their first child in 2017 were 29.1 years old. Over five years, the mean age has gradually increased from 28.7 in 2013 to 29.1 in 2017. Italy had the highest age of first childbirth, at 31.1. In 2017, there were 5.07 mil- lion babies born in the Euro- pean Union. The highest total fertility rate since the start of comparable time series was in 2010 when it reached 1.62. Malta with lowest fertility rate in the EU The staff carpark, earmarked for a bar and restaurant, originally consisted of a Greek Orthodox cemetery

• Cover