“Sorry, it’s too late.” This is what our law is telling people who finally pluck up the emotional and psychological courage to report child abuse they would have suffered years back.
The law imposes a 15-year prescription period for reporting sexual abuse against minors. This time frame begins when victims turn 23, meaning they must initiate legal action by their 38th birthday.
For over a decade, experts and organisations that work with child abuse victims have been calling on the authorities to abolish the legal limits for reporting child abuse.
Their argument is that justice should not have a cut-off date.
But, for some reason, what seems like a logical thing to do, has not been done.
We all know that children depend on the adults around them. Those who are raised in an abusive relationship grow up thinking – believing – that is what life should be like. For many years, they accept their reality because they do not know another better one.
As they grow older and start to realise that the people they trust and love – the people who should be protecting them – are actually hurting and abusing them – their world is shattered. This is not something you just go and report. Many emotions come into play: shame, anger, fear are just a few.
This was recently spelled out by a survivor of child abuse, Carmen Muscat. She spoke about how it can take many years for victims of child abuse to pluck up the courage to file a report against their abusers.
In her words: “When a child is living in an abusive environment, they lose track of what is good or bad. Then, when they realise, they wish to talk but, at the same time, might not have the courage to speak up.”
When a child is living in an abusive environment, they lose track of what is good or bad- Survivor of child abuse, Carmen Muscat
She explained that she is fighting for the removal of the time-barring in court.
The commissioner for children has also long been calling for the removal of the prescription period.
She echoes the calls of various organisations and NGOs that include the Church’s Safeguarding Commission, the Lisa Marie Foundation and the Malta Association of Social Workers.
Recent data issued by Eurostat backs up the urgency as they show the low reporting rate by women who were abused in their childhood.
The Eurostat figures showed that Malta has the highest overall rate of reporting domestic and gender-based violence in the EU: 76 per cent of women who experienced abuse reported it unofficially, such as by telling a friend or colleague. Just under half, 48.2 per cent, of women filed official reports to a health or social service, support service or the police.
However, the figures were very different when it came to women who experienced sexual abuse during childhood: 63.6 per cent reported the abuse to someone. But, in the case of the vast majority – 62.9 per cent – the report was unofficial.
Some years ago, Family Minister Michael Falzon said he was open to the idea of removing time-barring in sex abuse cases involving children. But there has been no progress.
All that happened is that, following a legal amendment in 2021, the clock now starts ticking from the age of 23 and not 18.
But it is still ticking – and that is wrong in the case of child abuse.
Because justice demands that it is never too late for a vulnerable person to seek justice. For a perpetrator to be stopped and brought to justice.
That same system that is telling abuse victims that it’s too late is also telling abusers: “Time is on your side, you got away with it.”