Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has admitted that he was not made aware of a government-funded report more than a year ago, which pointed to shortcomings in the way domestic violence cases were handled by the authorities.
Titled ‘Perpetrators of Domestic Violence: Statistics and Perceptions of Risk Factors for Harmful Behaviour’, the study was carried out by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing after being commissioned by the Tourism Ministry and supported by the office of the wife of the Prime Minister.
Its findings were similar to those made in an inquiry in the wake of the murder last November of Bernice Cassar, allegedly by her estranged husband.
Times of Malta had reported in November how the study had been gathering dust for a year after painting a picture of drained police officers, court delays that left victims' lives on hold, collapsed court cases and a system in which the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing.
Following Cassar's murder, the government launched an independent inquiry to establish whether any state institutions failed to prevent the killing. In its conclusions, Judge Geoffrey Valenzia found the State had failed the victim due to a lack of resources and the workload of the police and law courts.
Replying to questions by Nationalist MP Mark Anthony Sammut, Camilleri said that as soon as he became minister three years ago, he took action recommended by stakeholders including the setting up of a police unit to handle reports of domestic violence.
The Victim Support Agency was also set up. After the death of Cassar, an independent inquiry had been appointed and its recommendations would also be implemented.
In a supplementary question, Sammut said that once the minister claimed to have acted on recommendations, why had he not acted on the recommendations of the report handed to the government in December 2021 which were the same recommendations made in the Bernice Cassar inquiry.
"Would he assume responsibility?," Sammut asked.
The minister said he was not handed the December 2021 report.