Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/423164
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2014 News 6 Police inspector's role in father's wrongful arrest questioned MATTHEW AGIUS LOUISE Calleja, the police inspec- tor who led the prosecution of a man found to have been wrong- fully convicted of sexually abusing his daughter, could not have been unaware of key evidence that raised suspicions about the daughter's claims, a court heard yesterday. Lawyer Tonio Azzopardi was making his final submissions in the constitutional case filed by Emanuel Camilleri against In- spector Calleja, who had success- fully prosecuted Camilleri after his daughter falsely accused him of sexual abuse. Camilleri spent over a year in prison. "The Inspector came to the wrong conclusion despite the fact that there was important evidence that she was duty bound to inves- tigate and bring to the attention of the court." Camilleri is claiming a breach of his right to a fair trial. Leanne Camilleri had admitted telling the court the fabricated story, which had led to her father's imprisonment for almost 400 days. The father was provisionally re- leased by the Constitutional Court last June. Camilleri's wife Lisa May is ac- cused of making up the abuse story. The lawyer expressed disbelief at the inspector's claims of being un- aware of previous incident reports about Mrs Camilleri. The inspector had previously told the court that she was unaware of the reports, as they were usually handled by district police, while she works with the Vice Squad. The reports in question state that Lisa May Camilleri would neglect Leanne's brother to the extent where he would at times be forced to sleep out on the street. "Inspector Calleja is not some newcomer. She is an experienced Vice Squad officer and we do not believe that she did not see any of them or that no one brought them to her attention," Azzopardi said. Commenting on the fact that the mother was never arraigned, Az- zopardi told the court he suspects that someone "had a change of heart along the way" and stopped the police from charging her. Pointing to a report by Appogg, which had sparked off the inves- tigation, Azzopardi said this also raised serious questions as to the girl's credibility. No medical evidence of sexual vi- olence was found on the girl, how- ever the father was still charged. The lawyer suggested that the in- spector had charged Camilleri with defilement and not rape, in order not to have the case withdrawn. Tonio Azzopardi had harsh words for the way the case was handled by the courts. He said that Magistrate Miriam Hayman had refused to admit the testimony of a lawyer who had spoken to the girl and who would have testified that the girl had changed her testimony several times. He pointed out flaws in the logic behind having sexual abuse cases consistently heard by the same magistrate. "Familiarity breeds contempt," said the lawyer. The interim measure by the Con- stitutional Court to free the man should have set an example for the authorities, Azzopardi said. Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, for the defence, said the magistrate's court had to take a decision based on the evidence presented before it at the time and new evidence can- not be brought into the equation. The court cannot be accused of breaching someone's right to a fair trial if the relevant evidence was not available at the time. "The defence team has repeat- edly claimed that the girl used to lie. The fact is that her testimony before the courts was always con- sistent. Her version never changed and it led to a conviction." The lawyer also said the parts in the Appogg report claiming that the girl was a liar were based on hearsay. The court had decided, based on her evidence, that the charges were proved beyond rea- sonable doubt. Both sides had also had the chance to present all the witnesses they wanted and cross- examine them. The courts had car- ried out their duties well, he said. Arthur Azzopardi claimed the prosecution was using Inspector Calleja to indirectly criticise the courts, adding that Tonio Azzop- ardi was free to believe the theory that Inspector Calleja was aware of the reports but "a case is built on evidence, not personal opinions". The case was adjourned for sen- tencing to February 12, 2015. Anton Attard 'never heard' anyone say Scerri wanted to get rid of Norman Vella Incidence of breast canc second highest in Europe MATTHEW AGIUS PBS CEO Anton Attard yesterday denied having heard anyone say that Silvio Scerri, the chief of staff at the Home Affairs Ministry, wanted "to get rid" of former TV Hemm present- er Norman Vella. PBS falls under the ministerial re- sponsibility of the Ministry for Home Affairs. Attard was testifying in a case in- stituted by PN MEP candidate Vella, who is alleging political discrimina- tion. Vella, a civil servant who availed himself of unpaid leave to pursue a broadcasting career, had been de- ployed with the Public Broadcasting Services at the request of the national broadcaster, in 2012. But following Labour's re-election, he was redeployed back to his origi- nal post as immigration officer at the Malta International Airport. Attard also told the Employment Commission that three former One TV journalists were employed by the national broadcaster after the reas- signment of presenter Norman Vella, shortly after the election. Brandon Pisani, Rodney Vassallo and Dorothy Falzon were employed on a public call for applications, soon after Vella's reassignment to the air- port immigration department. The court heard how Attard dis- cusses PBS programme technical is- sues with Scerri, due to the fact that Scerri "knows the medium." Similar consultations, however, did not take place with Brian Magro, the chief of staff responsible for PBS un- der the previous administration. Attard had initially said that his only contact with the Home Affairs Ministry was with permanent secre- tary Kevin Mahoney, however he later admitted to communicating with Scerri. The witness also said that since the termination of Norman Vella's con- tract, PBS has ended with a lower net number of viewers than before. Describing Vella as "a very com- petent producer and presenter", At- tard said that, in his opinion, Vella's programmes were of a very good standard. Vella's lawyer, Andrew Borg Car- dona, asked the witness what kind of feedback they would receive from the public with respect to Vella's programmes. Attard said they were broadly positive, with the occasional negative comment. The court was also told that TV Hemm would do well in Broad- casting Authority surveys, which they would use to benchmark pro- gramme performance. The programme averaged 17,000 viewers for the period running from January to March 2013. Attard told the commission that two formal complaints were re- ceived about Vella's programme. One was filed by then PN MP Fran- co Debono who was a guest on the programme, and another being filed by the Nationalist Party about the same programme in which Debono featured. He testified that the retention or otherwise of Norman Vella was not up to him, but was the competence of the editorial board – of which At- tard is a non-voting member. "The view was that there should be different programmes with different people. I was not asked to give any recommendations or opinions on TV Hemm." The PBS CEO claimed to have received an email from Kevin Ma- honey, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs, asking when the programme's run would end and that it was principal perma- nent secretary Mario Cutajar who requested that Vella's secondment to PBS be revoked. Pressed by Borg Cardona, the wit- ness confirmed that Pisani, Vas- sallo and Falzon were all former One TV employees and that Norma Saliba was seconded directly from MEUSAC without a call for appli- cations, adding that this type of ar- rangement was "quite common". The case will continue in January. MATTHEW VELLA MALTA has one of the highest inci- dences of breast cancer deaths in Eu- rope, according to statistics released by Eurostat for 2011. In the EU28 in 2011, cancer was the cause of death for 1.28 million persons, responsible for more than a quarter of all deaths (26.3%). 9.7% of cancer deaths in Malta were down to breast cancer, the second highest rate in the EU. Over the previous 10 years, while the total number of deaths decreased slightly (-0.5%), the number of deaths due to cancer increased by 6.3% (from 1.206 million in 2002 to 1.281 million in 2011), at a slightly higher pace for females (+6.6%) than for males (+6.0%). However, the number of deaths due to cancer remained higher in 2011 among the male population (718,000 deaths due to cancer) than among the female population (563,000). In 2011, cancer represented 37.1% of all causes of death for the EU28 popu- lation aged under 65, while this level was only 23.8% for the older popula- tion (those aged 65 years and over). Leading to the death of over 266,000 persons (or 20.8% of all deaths due to cancer), lung cancer was the main type of fatal cancer in the EU28 in 2011, followed by colorectal cancer (152,000 or 11.9%), breast cancer (93,000 or 7.2%), pancreatic cancer (78,000 or 6.1%) and prostate cancer (73,000 or 10.2% of all fatal cancers for the male population only). Among the total population, can- cer was in 2011 the cause of more than 30% of deaths in the Nether- lands (31.9%), Slovenia (31.3%) and Ireland (30.5%), while it represented less than a fifth of all causes of death in Bulgaria (15.6%), Romania (19.1%) and Lithuania (19.9%). At least a quarter of deaths were due to cancer in 17 Member States in 2011. Looking at age groups, 345,000 per- sons aged less than 65 died in 2011 in the EU28 because of cancer, meaning that cancers represented more than a third (37.1%) of all causes of death for this age group. Among Member States, death due to cancer for peo- ple aged less than 65 accounted for more than 40% of all causes of death in the Netherlands (48.0%), Italy (45.2%), Spain (43.9%) and Slovenia (40.9%), but less than 30% in Lithua- nia (23.2%), Latvia (24.2%), Estonia (26.3%), Bulgaria (26.7%) and Finland (28.4%). For the population aged 65 and over, cancer represented almost a quarter (23.8% or 936,000 persons) of all causes of deaths in the EU28 in 2011, with the highest shares registered in Slovenia (28.8%), Ireland (28.4%), the Netherlands (28.3%), Denmark (27.6%) and the United Kingdom (27.2%), and the lowest in Bulgaria (12.3%) and Romania (15.2%). Colorectal cancer In all Member States, the most prevalent cancer leading to death in 2011 was lung cancer, except in Por- tugal where it was colorectal cancer.