MALTA
Malta Today
Matthew Agius 28 April 2016
A Constitutional court has turned down a request that it order a judge to recuse himself from hearing a case asking for damages for clerical sex abuse, due to his involvement in church-related organisations.
Judge Mark Chetcuti delivered the judgement in the Constitutional case filed this May by eleven victims of clerical sex abuse, after Judge Joseph R. Micallef had turned down their request that he abstain from deciding the claim.
The plaintiffs had been seeking redress after suffering abuse at the hands of priests whilst they had been children in Church care in the late 80s and early 90s. Carmelo Pulis and Godwin Scerri, both now defrocked, had been jailed, for 5 and 6 years respectively, for their cruelty and abuse against the boys in July 2011, confirmed on appeal in November 2012.
But when the subsequent civil case for damages against the Archdiocese of Malta was assigned to Mr. Justice Micallef, a staunch Catholic and president of the Malta Radio Maria Association, the men filed a request that the judge recuse himself, citing a perceived risk of pro-church bias on the part of the judge.
Micallef did not uphold their request and the men had then, in April 2015, filed urgent Constitutional proceedings, claiming a breach of their right to a fair trial.
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