Updated: Adds Lou Bondi Comments; Defence Lawyer Wants Lou Bondi As Witness in Appeal of St. Joseph Home Priests

DI-VE
January 13, 2012

http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=88696&cache=false

During the appeal of the two priests who were jailed after being convicted of sexually abusing boys at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera, the defence lawyer asked for new witnesses including the T.V. presenter Lou Bondi.

The T.V. presenter was the victim’s spokesman.

In a statement, Lou Bondi said that he has no difficulty to confirm under oath what he had written on his blog.

"The statements made by Lawrence Grech about me at the time were untrue. At the same time, this has no bearing on my views on whether the sexual abuse had taken place. I never had and still do not have doubt that it did, as confirmed already by the court," Mr Bondi added.

Last year, Fr Charles Pulis was jailed for 6 years while Fr Godwin Scerri was jailed for 5 years by Magistrate Saviour Demicoli, who also ruled that the case should no longer remain behind closed doors. The defence had asked for the case to be heard behind closed doors, prompting the victims to declare that this helped it ask certain questions without public scrutiny.

Court proceedings had started in 2003 over the case, which concerned the abuse of boys who lived at the Santa Venera home in the early 1990s. Another priest facing charges over the case, Fr Joseph Bonett, succumbed to bone cancer earlier this year, at the age of 63.

Public attention was drawn to the case when the victims started giving interviews to the media, with one of them – Lawrence Grech – publicly identifying himself to speak up on behalf of the group. Others subsequently followed up on Mr Grech’s footsteps last year.

The case even attracted the attention of the world media last year when the victims were given a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Malta.