President George Abela pro-mised to "verify" the reasons behind the delay in a court case against three priests accused of sexually abusing orphans at St Joseph's Home.

During a meeting with six men who claim to have been abused by clergy at the Santa Venera home, Dr Abela said he had taken note of their complaint, although he could not enter into the merits of their case.

Ten men who spent some years at the home have testified against Fr Charles Pulis, Fr Godwin Scerri and Bro. Joseph Bonnett behind closed doors in front of Magistrate Saviour Demicoli in a case that has been dragging on since 2003.

"Justice delayed is justice denied," Dr Abela told the victims during the hour-long meeting, held in private at the President's Palace in Valletta.

The President chairs the Commission for the Administration of Justice.

In a press conference outside the law courts after the meeting, the men demanded justice at the earliest.

"It is not just and not humanely tolerable that these people were not sentenced after seven years," television presenter Lou Bondì, who has been helping the men, said.

"These men want closure," he said, adding that another two men had contacted him claiming to have suffered sexual abuse by the same priests in the same orphanage.

The men thanked Dr Abela for speaking about clergy abuse during the Pope's welcome ceremony last weekend. Dr Abela had said Church members, even ministers, sometimes went astray, adding it would, however, be wrong to use "the reprehensible indiscretions of the few to cast a shadow on the Church as a whole".

Lawrence Grech, one of the victims who has been campaigning for justice for years, yesterday compared the meeting with Dr Abela to the one the men had with Archbishop Paul Cremona last week.

"He understood us just like the Archbishop did," Mr Grech said, adding that while he shook the hands of the other men, the President hugged one of the victims who has a disability.

The private meeting with Mgr Cremona, last week, had been described as "very emotional" by the alleged victims, who were given the opportunity to explain their experiences in detail.

On Sunday, they also met Pope Benedict XVI during a private audience that was viewed as a significant expression of solidarity with victims of abuse. Although the meeting was kept under wraps until after it happened, there had been strong speculation the Pope would meet victims of clergy abuse during his 26-hour trip to Malta.

Earlier this month, Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's press office director, had said "the Pope has written that he is available for new meetings" with victims.

Three days after the visit, during his weekly public audience at Rome's St Peter's Square, the Pope said he "shared their suffering, and greatly moved, prayed with them". He also reiterated the Church's determination to tackle abuse by clergy.

Although the Maltese diocese's response team, which is also dealing with the men's cases, and the courts, have not yet closed the cases, the Holy See and Pope Benedict have been referring to the men as victims of clergy abuse rather than "alleged victims", something that has pleased the men.

Mr Bondì said the victims were still expecting justice from the response team, which had only interviewed three of them in seven years and never told them the outcome of the case.

He said the fact that the court case was being heard behind closed doors was to the advantage of the alleged perpetrators because the public did not know what was happening.

Mr Grech said that, before the meeting, Dr Abela excitedly showed the men the mosaic given to him by Pope Benedict.