Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1232859
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 APRIL 2020 NEWS Constitutional Court highlights 'systematic failures' by police in domestic violence case Systemic failure in the way police investigated and prosecuted domestic violence reports led to the secondary victimisation of woman MATTHEW AGIUS THE Constitutional Court has con- firmed an award of €5,000 in damages to a long-suffering victim of domestic abuse, after it noted that the State had failed in a positive obligation to protect her from her estranged husband, pointing to "sys- temic failures" on the part of the Police. In what is a landmark judgment on the matter of domestic violence, Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi, Mr. Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr. Justice Anthony Ellul said they were in "perfect agreement" with the court of first instance, in that the woman was a vulnerable person who had suffered at the hands of her husband for many years, filed a large number of police re- ports against her husband. The man had defied protection orders and bail conditions and had continued with his criminal behaviour towards the woman, who lived in fear for her safety and that of her children. Despite her reports, there were in- stances when the police did not take ac- tion or delayed taking action. The first court had, in fact, noted "sys- temic failures" in the way police investi- gated and prosecuted domestic violence reports, all of which led to the second- ary victimisation of the applicant. It observed that the police did not have a centralised system for flagging protec- tion orders issued in favour of victims of violence. Such a system should be available at every police station, said the court. Nei- ther did the police have a central office or standard operating procedure for the prosecution of domestic violence cases. "It is evident that the system failed, and failed in a big way, especially in view of the number of reports filed by the applicant and the failure of the po- lice to proceed on a number of them in the context of an escalation of abuse." The Constitutional Court noted that the ill-treatment of the wife was self-ev- ident in this case and that this ill-treat- ment had caused fear, anxiety and des- peration in the wife. It concluded that this amounted to inhuman treatment under the European COnvention of Hu- man RIghts. In their appeal application, the State Advocate said nothing that could convince the court that the appealed sentence had an incorrect evaluation of the facts. "The shortcomings pointed out by the First Court are blatant. For example, that a victim of domestic violence has no reference point with which to file re- ports but had to make them in different police stations, apparently depending on where the incident took place...This way the victim must repeat the trau- matic experience every time she makes a report and produce documentary evi- dence at the police station." Despite protestations to the contrary, the court said there were several in- stances where it was evident that the police had not taken steps against the man and had not given adequate expla- nation as to why this was the case. It upheld the judgment at first instance and confirmed the award of damages. Lawyers Lara Dimitrijevic and Steph- anie Caruana appeared on behalf of the woman. Government spent €998 million on social security benefits in 2019 DAVID HUDSON THE government spent €997.9 million on social security benefits in 2019 according to figures re- leased by the National Statistics Office. This is approximately €33 mil- lion over the previous year's spending, or an increase of 3.4%. According to the NSO, the big- gest increase in spending was in contributory pensions, having increased by €30 million for a to- tal of €700 million. In 2019, the two-thirds pension represented the largest cohort of recipients, standing at 51,258. This was in stark contrast to the national minimum widows' pen- sion that reported the largest drop in recipients, with 707 less persons receiving the benefit. Reacting to the figures, the Family Ministry said that spend- ing on non-contributory benefits was lower than in the previous year since there was less spend- ing on social assistance and sup- plementary aid of €5.6 million as a result of less unemployment benefits being paid out. Family Minister Michael Falzon said that since more and more people were getting employed, less and less people were contin- uing to depend on social assis- tance. The spending on in-work ben- efits increased to a total of €4.5 million in 2019 and 5,135 fami- lies were directly affected by this benefit —approximately €862 per year were paid to each family. "Despite the difficult times we are going through, the govern- ment will remain committed to see through the successes of these last seven years; after we get through this difficult period, we will continue to build on the successes in the social sector," Falzon said.