When I started my business as an investigative journalist, I wrote down some principles and rules to apply in my work. Malta has a criminal and judicial system which is biased towards the suspect and the criminal. This bias is the product of years of successive governments (mainly Nationalist administrations) that were run by criminal lawyers. The consequence of this bias is that more often than not, the justice system fails to deliver justice to victims. One of my principles is to stand on the side of the State, and put my bias in favour of victims.
Local Courts have a tendency to apply a lot of measures which protect the suspect at the expense of the victim. These measures are rather unique, since in other countries, all court records are public and names can be easily searched. One common feature in our local courts is that men suspected of domestic violence have their names withheld by the court. By the time the court case is closed, years would pass with the victim still teetering with the trauma.
I have once broke a court order by announcing that Adrian Delia had admitted in the family court of having violently abused his wife and children. There is still a court order withholding the details of the case, however Adrian Delia’s admission was made in writing as he accepted his ex-wife’s reasons for wanting to separate from him in order to speed up the court process. AS a consequence of having published this story, my relationships and contacts with the Nationalist Party broke down as they protested against the publishing of this story. Many PN stalwarts stopped speaking to me after this story.
I think I did the right thing in outing Adrian Delia since he is a public figure and is projecting himself as an acceptable politician. The public has the right to know these very important facts about him. Likewise, the general public should be aware of potentially abusive medical professionals who are involved in domestic violence cases, especially if these professionals are public persons who project a particular mage of them through the media.
I’ve received various reports by different women of Mark Xuereb‘s very abusive behaviour with his female clients. I never published them because despite having a strong bias towards victims, I am also very cautious with my work, knowing how effective it could be. Recently, the Commission of Domestic Violence has issued a press statement demanding the courts to reveal the name of the psychiatrist who is accused of domestic violence. I’m pretty sure the Court won’t entertain this request because that’s not how the law works. However, I’m ready to bite the bullet and out him given that there is this official demand by the Commission of Domestic Violence. The psychiatrist accused in the case is actually Mark Xuereb.
Mark Xuereb is innocent until proven guilty, but the accusations in themselves are of a serious nature and should not be treated lightly as if nothing is going on. And I write this also because Mark Xuereb doesn’t have a very good history with some of his female clients. There’s no reason why women would conspire against him (he’s not Louis Camilleri after all, and doesn’t have millions of Euros to dish out as hush-money), so I’m taking the side of the victim in this story.
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