The Children's Commissioner will be proposing the setting up of a panel of experts to discuss the introduction of a sex offenders' register. Speaking to The Times yesterday, Carmen Zammit said she will be making the proposal to Social Policy Minister John Dalli in a bid to get the cogs moving on this issue.
Ms Zammit's predecessor, Sonia Camilleri had said she would be making proposals on the matter but the idea seems to have lost momentum. Now, The Times reports, the introduction of a sex offenders' register has been placed as an item on this legislature's agenda.
The Times says that the idea to have a paedophile register had surfaced in mid-2006 following a controversy involving the Malta Football Association, which retained a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman at the Pace Grasso ground in Paola that also doubles as a playing field for a nearby school.
"I personally agree with the introduction of such a register 100 per cent. From complaints I've received and reports in the media, I believe it's clear that we need to have a system whereby people directly involved with children are screened," Ms Zammit told The Times.
She stressed that having a register introduced was a delicate issue that needs a proper discussion. "I believe there needs to be a debate among different experts who are somehow involved in the matter and who can come up with a system as to how this register can be implemented... who should keep it, what level of information should be made available and to whom."
Ms Zammit will also be writing to her counterparts and ombudsmen in Europe, asking for advice on their experience with a similar register, adds The Times.
Besides having been mentioned in the President's address to Parliament, in which he outlined the government's programme for this legislature, a popular call for the register resurfaced recently, says The Times, along with tougher penalties for sex offenders, following the case of a 37-year-old religion teacher who admitted in court to sending SMS messages with sexual connotations to former students aged between 13 and 14 years.
The publication of his name was banned by the court but an infuriated chain message was sent, revealing his identity, concludes The Times report.
