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	Lourdes Home Abuse Victim to Petition for Change in Law By Annaliza Borg Malta Independent October 4, 2011 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=131504 A victim of physical and psychological abuse at Lourdes Home in Gozo would like to meet sex abuse victim Lawrence Grech to help collect signatures for a national petition calling for an amendment to the law regarding time-barred cases. According to the law, after a certain time elapses cases cannot be heard. “But if some minister’s child had suffered abuse, the law would surely have been amended,” said Noel Gauci, the victim who shared his feelings with The Malta Independent on Sunday. Soon after being born in 1973, Mr Gauci was taken to the home where he lived until 1984, when he was moved to St Joseph Home, also in Gozo. When he was 17, he had to leave the home and fend for himself. He considers his efforts with the police and the Archbishop to take action as a waste of energy because not much apparent action was taken and he has received threats on a number of occasions, even recently, when he spoke of what he went through. The fact that cases of physical and psychological abuse, which took place at the children’s residence years ago, continue to be shrouded in secrecy totally infuriates him. “I want to see justice done and will keep fighting for it,” he insisted. Meanwhile, Archbishop Paul Cremona’s statement some weeks ago, after the court sentenced the culprits of sexual abuse at another residence for children, has angered Mr Gauci even more. Mgr Cremona had asked for information on abuse cases to be passed on to him or to the police. While the Lourdes Home case had been reported years ago, and a report commissioned by Gozo bishop Mario Grech confirmed that abuse did take place, the victims have had no form of support. “The archbishop said what he said to hurt us,” Mr Gauci believes. The residence was eventually closed down and the children were re-homed in Malta. To date, there is no residence for children in Gozo although nuns continued to reside there. “But the residence had been given to the Church by people who wanted it to be used as a residence for children in the first place,” Mr Gauci said. “I can’t understand why it has remained closed.” Mr Gauci also claims that sexual abuse by priests has also taken place at Lourdes Home and St Joseph Home, where older boys lived. “Back then, the section which is now called ‘Dar Guzeppa Debono’ and used as a respite centre for young expectant mothers, was part of Lourdes Home but barely used,” he explains. “We used to be sent to that part of the home for altar boy practice and the priest there would put the boy’s hand on his penis and masturbate,” he said. Mr Gauci also claims to have been sexually abused at St Joseph Home by a priest he preferred not to name because the same priest had helped him find his birth mother. However, no one was ever charged in court. In reply to our questions, the police said that investigations are still in progress. No details on the stage of investigations were given, as, they explained, it would not be ethically correct to divulge anything at this stage. Mr Gauci, however, doubts whether the case is truly being investigated. One police inspector said the case was time-barred. “By not taking action, they are the perpetrators of criminality against human beings,” he said while noting that if he could find a sponsor to help financially, he would definitely take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. “They used to hit us with wooden clothes hangers or make us sleep covered from head to toe as a form of punishment in summer,” said Noel Gauci. “I still sleep covered up that way.” “One particular evening when I was watching Tista’ Tkun Int some years ago, Sr Josephine Sultana, the nun whom the police said they were investigating back in May, was invited on the programme and received a gift. “That incident enraged me because she was the same nun who had broken my arm,” he explained. “She also used to make me eat food I didn’t like. I would throw up and she would make me eat my vomit”. He added that children used to be sent to school on foot with a nappy stuck to their back because they would have accidentally wet themselves. Another form of punishment was being locked up with the chickens for a morning. He also remembers a particular girl, who later volunteered at the home when she was older and witnessed children being abused, being dragged along a corridor by her hair. “If we used to turn our heads during prayer time in the residence’s chapel we used to get slapped really hard.” Reacting to criticism from people who question why cases that happened one or two decades ago started to be reported over the past 10 years and are being mentioned time and time again now, Mr Gauci said: “My arm was broken because I had spoken to a teacher about some bad experience. How can a young boy in a children’s residence ever report such cases? And why (should he report), to get beaten even harder?” He pointed out that when the late President Agatha Barbara was chairperson of the national committee collecting funds for the Community Chest Fund, a good proportion of the money went to children’s homes but he claims to have never seen much of it put to good use. “In summer we never had any fans and we were never given any juices to drink whereas the nuns did.” He said that he himself and other abuse victims lack the funds necessary to fight court cases. Understanding that Maltese people are angry for what happened to these victims, he is of the opinion that the annual l-Istrina fund-raising event collects funds for abuse victims at least as a one-off. Soon after leaving St Joseph Home, Noel Gauci started abusing alcohol and drugs. Luckily, he found help, eventually completed a rehabilitation programme at San Blas and prides himself on having been clean for 12 years. This case and the abuse that took place there are known to the Church authorities, but aside from closing down the place, no action has been taken against the alleged perpetrators. Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI issued guidelines telling bishops around the world to report suspected cases of abuse of minors to the police. The Lourdes Home case came to media attention in April 2006 when this newspaper together with Bondiplus, revealed allegations of abuse that mainly concerned Sr Josephine Anne Sultana and Sr Dorothy Mizzi. These related to the period between 12 December 1975 and 30 October 1984, when Sr Carmelita Borg was Mother Superior. In 2008, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech asked for forgiveness after a committee investigating the claims found that “inadmissible behaviour involving minors” had taken place. No details of such behaviour were ever officially communicated by the Church.
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