Marking the fourth anniversary of his wife’s death in a Ħamrun building collapse, Carmel Pace said there are moments when he feels the real victim becomes the accused.
Miriam Pace ,54,was buried under the rubble of her family home in Triq Joseph Abela Scolaro on March 2, 2020. Her death prompted an outpouring of public grief and anger, as well as promises of reform in the sector.
Two architects have been found guilty of involuntary homicide over the house collapse and were each handed a suspended jail term along with 880 hours of community work.
The pair had originally faced charges alongside excavation contractor 37-year-old Ludwig Dimech and 42-year-old builder Nicholas Spiteri, who have opted to have their case heard by the criminal court.
Since then, dozens of other construction incidents claimed other victims.
On Saturday morning in a Facebook post, Pace recalled how his family’s life was turned upside down four years ago.
“All this because of human greed,” he wrote.
“After four years, many judge and many point fingers. What I know is that sometimes I think the real victim becomes the accused, and the accused becomes the victim. Everyone forgets that the real victim is the one who was murdered in her own home, and her family is still suffering the consequences.”
Last September, a judge ruled that the development of the large-scale construction project site next to Pace’s home could continue. The site was given the go-ahead after the state was preserved through video footage and photographs.
His comments come days after the public inquiry report into the death of Jean Paul Sofia found the state responsible for allowing a “comedy of errors” in regulatory failures and oversights that contributed to the death of the 20-year-old in 2022.
Sofia died when the construction site he was on collapsed suddenly and buried him under the rubble. Five other people were injured in the incident.
In a 484-page report published on Wednesday, the inquiry went to considerable lengths flagging multiple failings in various state authorities. Key officials within some of them should "consider their positions", the inquiry said.
Several key officials that were named in the report have since resigned. One was sacked.
Five people, including AllPlus’ two developers, the project architect and directors of the contracting firm building the factory, stand accused of having involuntarily killed Sofia.