Maltese priests given prison time for child abuse

Two Maltese priests were sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison between them yesterday after they were convicted of sexually abusing boys at an orphanage in the 1980s. Charles Pulis was jailed for six years after he was found guilty of nine counts of abuse, eight of which took place in the orphanage. Godwin Scerri was jailed for five years for abusing an undisclosed number of children but he was cleared of a rape charge because the crime had taken place in a different location to the one listed in the charge sheet. The judgment, bringing to an end an eight-year court case, was delivered in a packed courtroom as the two priests stood quietly in the dock. Their lawyers said they would appeal. Victim Lawrence Grech, who has often spoken on behalf of others abused by the priests, addressed journalists outside the court minutes after the sentence was passed and said they were very satisfied with the outcome. “They did a lot of harm. They affected our lives and those of our families,” he said in an emotional speech. “Some of the victims ended up taking drugs, and some have died since then. The damage they caused will never go away,” Grech said, wiping tears from his eyes. Grech said he hoped the church would remove the perpetrators from priesthood with immediate effect. The Maltese Church revealed last year that a paedophilia “response team” it set up in 1999 had received allegations against 45 priests, nearly half of which had been ruled groundless. The court case began in 2003 when Grech and other victims decided to speak up. They accused the priests of abusing them when they were aged between 13 and 16 years at the St Joseph’s Home orphanage. The Maltese victims were granted a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI when the leader of the Catholics was in Malta in April last year.