Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1226904
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 MARCH 2020 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS MORE disappointment for the victims of the St Joseph Home clerical sex abuse, as the Court of Appeal confirmed that their case was time-barred. Chief Justice Joseph Azzopar- di, Mr Justice Tonio Mallia and Madam Justice Miriam Hay- man, in a decision handed down on Friday, upheld a judgment of the First Hall Civil Court, ruling the claim to be time-barred. Lawrence Grech, together with ten others, had filed a case for damages against two priests, the St Paul's Missionary Society, the Archdiocese of Malta, and the government in 2013. The case dates back to Au- gust 2011, when two priests of the MSSP, Godwin Scerri, 78, and Carmelo Pulis, 69, were de- frocked and jailed for five and six years respectively on appeal in 2012, after they had been convicted of sexually abusing 11 boys in their care at St Joseph's Home in Santa Venera in the 1980s. They had filed a civil case for damages, which was assigned at first to Mr Justice Joseph R. Mi- callef, who recused himself due to his ties to the Church and later assigned to Madam Justice Anna Felice, who also abstained. The case was finally assigned to Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti, who heard evidence on the plea of prescription. But their efforts to obtain com- pensation all came to naught in April 2018 when the court ruled the claim for damages to be time-barred by the two-year prescriptive period laid down by law. After a struggle to obtain fund- ing, Grech filed an appeal on the grounds that prescription had been interrupted. Archbishop Charles Scicluna in his statement to the court said: "I have encouraged their lawyer Patrick Valentino to ask for damages in the Civil Courts. I think they have every right, but the Church in Malta should be pro-active to help them psycho- logically and if need be finan- cially. The Curia would do well to create a Victim Solidarity Fund which would go beyond the strict demands of damages law, both in Civil and Canon Law." Notwithstanding this, the court had observed that the dis- cussions between the Church and the victims were made in a spirit of reconciliation and did not amount to a recognition of responsibility for the incidents. Therefore, these could never have interrupted prescription or be taken as a renunciation of prescription by the Archdiocese. The Court of Appeal has now observed that the first court had made an in-depth analysis of the case, agreeing that it could not see how a request for forgive- ness could somehow lead to the interruption of prescription. It said this admission could be indirect or presumed but "must be deduced from concluding facts incompatible with the vo- lition of the party contesting the existence or exercise of the right, which is not the case here". An expression of sorrow and the asking of forgiveness by the Archbishop did not mean that he was assuming responsibili- ty for everything done by every member of the clergy, said the court. "Anything a cleric does can cast an ugly light on the Church, but this doesn't mean that the Church is responsible for everything that happens." Neither did discussions be- tween the victims and the ec- clesiastical authorities interrupt prescription, nor the offer of help by the Church authorities. "One of the Catholic Church's roles is to help whoever is suf- fering or hurt and by doing so it is not assuming responsibility for that pain," said the court. Church sex abuse victims lose damages' appeal Lawyer Peter Valentino (centre) with Lawrence Grech (third from right) on the steps of the Archbishop's Curia after one of the meetings the victims had with former Archbishop Paul Cremona THE Planning Authority will intro- duce video-conferencing to conduct its public meetings, a new legal notice published Saturday has decreed. As the extraordinary circumstances from the COVID-19 pandemic forces the country into a partial lockdown, the site where planning decisions are taken in Malta - always places of pub- lic confrontation between developers, residents and the regulator - will now meet using electronic or other viable means of communication. "Given the extraordinary circum- stances that the country is facing due to COVID-19, the Authority has intro- duced a new protocol that will allow its Planning Board or Commissions to conduct their meetings in public us- ing electronic or other viable means of communication. "Public health takes precedence over all other priorities. To this end, the Planning Authority will soon re-start Planning Board and Planning Com- mission public meetings using video conferencing, this following the pub- lication of a legal notice which has amended the way public meetings are to be conducted," the PA said in a statement. The legal notice decrees that an ap- plicant, their architect, a registered interested party and any member of the public will, at the discretion of the chairperson, be allowed to make sub- missions related to the case the board or commission will be discussing, by electronic means. Any member of the public who wishes to participate in the meet- ing held through elec- tronic means will, at least one working day before the date of the meeting notify the PA board of the commis- sion of their interest. The move comes a week since the environ- ment minister stopped PA boards and commissions from con- vening without the public present, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Planning Authority will also ex- tend all valid development permits which are due to expire by 31 Decem- ber 2022, by an additional three years. In a second legal notice issued the same day, the PA will allow current permit holders who might be unable to carry out works, to have their permit valid right up until 2025. The move is interpreted as a way of ensuring developers' rights are not short-circuited by the pandemic shut- down, and to ensure an orderly re- sumption of works. Planning board meetings to continue via video-conference Gatecrash-proof: the PA meetings will be carried out via video-conferencing