The daughter of a woman killed in a building collapse 18 years ago has described why she has forgiven those responsible for her death and said that they should not have been sent to prison.

Maria Dolores Zarb, 60, was giving a Maltese language lesson to Russian student Nadya Vavilova, 24, when their St Paul’s Bay home collapsed on June 3, 2004, killing them both.

Last week, contractor Paul Demicoli had his three-year prison sentence reduced to two years on appeal after being convicted of causing their deaths through negligence.

In a candid opinion piece written for Times of Malta, Marie Diane Mulè Stagno described why she has forgiven him and others found responsible for the tragedy.

“Compassion has become scarce,” she writes.

“Initially, after my mother’s passing, I looked at my own and my family’s anger and hurt. I accused the contractor and employee for their carelessness.”

She said that she was unaware of what the accused were going through.

“Time helped me realise that even they were victims of the unfortunate tragedy,” she said.

“Neither of them intended the tragedy to occur. My mother was working, and she died. They were working and ended up at the police station.”

She believes that, instead of a prison term, Demicoli and the others involved in the deaths should have been given community work, which would have benefited society.

Mulè Stagno also calls on the authorities to speed up court proceedings and for the construction industry to learn to value life over money.

“I experienced the loss of my mother through others’ negligence. I felt anger. I wanted and needed to have my mother back.

“Yet, death is part of life. Some people die a natural death. Others, like my mother, take their last breath unnaturally.”

Mulè Stagno wrote the piece days after the 18-year court saga came to an end last week.

Her childhood home was in an apartment block, which crumbled when a worker in the adjacent construction site cut through the bearing concrete surface of the building. The collapse killed Zarb and Vavilova.

Mulè Stagno had picked up her own daughter Miriana, then two-and-a-half, from the house at 1.30pm after work. A couple of hours later, the building gave way.

Mary Zarb (inset, left) was giving a Maltese language lesson to Nadya Vavilova (inset, right) in her apartment when the building collapsed, killing them both. File photo: Times of Malta

The incident led to criminal action against Demicoli, the contractor, Kevin Bonnici, the worker who had been carrying out excavation works on site earlier that day, as well as the owner of the plot, Paul Magro for having caused the victims’ death through negligence and inadequate risk assessment.

In 2009, Demicoli and Bonnici were found guilty and sentenced to a three-year and an 18-month jail term, respectively.

Magro was acquitted. Bonnici filed an appeal and had his jail term reduced to six months.

Demicoli filed a separate appeal and, last week, had his jail term reduced to two years.

The appeal court had factored in Mulè Stagno’s forgiveness and even her plea for community work but ruled that this was not an option in this case. The court, however, did note that 18 years had passed since the case.

Mulè Stagno writes that forgiveness was not easy but it was a choice, driven by will and faith, that allowed her and her family to live in peace. 

“I can only imagine the hardships the accused faced,” she said.

“Are not the guilt, fear, remorse troubling enough? Are not the condemning social media comments sufficiently hard? Is not the people’s judgement enough?

“Does not the humility experienced by the accused’s families and relatives suffice? Being a victim does not equate wanting others to suffer for their misdoings.

“Anger breeds more anger.”

Now that the case is over, she hoped that lessons would be learnt. She called on people to be vigilant when works are carried out near their homes and on contractors and people in the industry to take this tragic happening from a deeper and more conscientious perspective.

“What should be valued more: property and money or health and life itself? I ask them to ponder: ‘What if it were a member of my own family who died in this way?’ All human life is inviolable and meaningful.”