Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/376810
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 13 gist would also be in a position to tell if the allegations are true… if a child gives details of things he or she would not be expected to know at that age, it would be a significant indicator, and so on. But in contrived cases, Mangion adds that the accused will suffer seri- ous consequences. "Apart from loss of access to children, even his reputa- tion will suffer even though the case is held behind closed doors. There are other issues. For example, in an inquiry, if I am legally representing the father, I might only have access to the file if I make an application. Since he is not accused of any crime, I won't have automatic access to the court file." Recent case history suggests that wrongly accused fathers can also suffer prison sentences. Emmanuel Camilleri was charged in 2004 with corrupting a minor and sentenced to two years, of which he served 400 days before being provisionally released. It later transpired that the charges had been fabricated by his estranged wife, who got their (then 16-year-old) daughter to testify against him. One particular suspicion raised by that case was that the investigating officer/s may have been predisposed – for want of a better word – to as- sume guilt, and that procedure may therefore not have been followed to the letter. This is in fact subject to an ongoing inquiry, as well as a court case filed by Camilleri. The prospect doesn't offer much reassurance over existing proce- dures for such sensitive cases. What safeguards exist to ensure that bogus claims are weeded out at investiga- tion stage? "Legally speaking, the police must have the discretion to determine that the evidence is sufficient… and in such cases there are medical evalua- tions. There are other levels, includ- ing the court case itself. In the event of a guilty verdict, the decision will have been affected by various levels: the police investigation, the medical reports, the magistrate who assesses the evidence – even a judge, if the case is appealed. All these consid- erations will have gone into the fi- nal decision. And in criminal law, the level of proof must be 'beyond reasonable doubt'. The magistrate must have 100% moral certainty that the accused is truly guilty. There are certain factors which have to be in place: evidence must be corrobo- rated and fool-proof… and it works both ways. If a witness changes his or her version of events, it's a sign that person is lying." In an ideal world, this would work every single time. But we've all seen how this is not always the case… "Mistakes happen. It is unfortunate, but one can't be deterred." Here she pauses to correct herself. "I don't like to refer to these as mistakes myself, because… if, for example, a case is decided one way, and then the ap- peal court rules in a different man- ner, does that mean that the first case was a mistake?" Well, I personally would certainly consider that a mistake, yes. How can an innocent person spend two years in prison, and the case itself not be a miscarriage of justice? "A miscarriage of justice, yes. But you can't say it was a mistake made by the magistrate. If, for example, the child's version was fool-proof, and she didn't change versions, then the magistrate had no real choice…" But this merely reinforces the is- sue. The system, as Mangion de- scribes it, can easily result in miscar- riages of justice. At least one case so far has already turned out to be a fabrication. That is true for all cases and all crimes, granted; but when applied specifically to child abuse, there may be other factors to take into account. We have been seeing more of these cases lately, suggest- ing that people are likelier to report abuse – rightly or wrongly – than ever before. If there aren't proper structures in place to deal with these reports, there is no telling who might be unjustly charged with child abuse in future. Doesn't this shake public confidence in the justice system? "These events do leave an impact on society, but one can't lose faith in justice just because of these few instances. We have to also look at it from the other point of view; that of the victims in real cases. They might reason that it's not worth going to the police station, because people might think we are making this up. We must be cautious. Let's not for- get that there are real sexual abuse cases, too; we can't end up being too influenced by the false accusations." Interview There is more than one kind of victim of child abuse. Family lawyer ANN MARIE MANGION explains the legal ramifications of an apparent spike in underage sex abuse cases dare not speak its name PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD