'Investigate Other Cases'

Times of Malta
November 14, 2012

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121114/local/-Investigate-other-cases-.445255

Lawrence Grech yesterday. Photo by Matthew Mirabelli

Victims of two former priests whose prison sentences for child abuse were confirmed by an Appeals Court yesterday have called on the Government to investigate the files of similar cases that were being “hidden” by the Church.

Speaking on the steps of the court shortly after a judge confirmed the imprisonment of their abusers, Lawrence Grech said he wanted to appeal to the Government to investigate other claims.

He said he also wanted to appeal to victims of sex abuse to come forward and make their claims known to the police.

The files of abuse cases were being hidden by the Church in the Curia, he claimed.

Mr Grech said that once the case of the victims he represented became public, the Church had spent considerable funds on lawyers and yet not provided any assistance. The victims would continue to seek compensation from the Church through the courts.

He said that “besides the power, the lawyers and the money in court, there is only one thing that is important and that is the truth”.

Asked to comment, the Curia said that like any other institution, the Church held its own records and archives and had its own rules on how and which of these documents were made public.

“This does not mean ‘hiding’,” it said.