A court sentence imposing “just” 880 hours of community work on two architects who were found guilty of Miriam Pace’s involuntary homicide was “too lenient”, the victim’s husband said on Thursday.
But Carmel Pace insisted the family was not baying for blood or seeking a vendetta for the loss of the woman crushed under the weight of her home in a construction accident in March 2020.
Contacted hours after the magistrate’s sentence, Pace said he had expected the architects to be given a tougher community sentence.
He would not be drawn into commenting on whether he expected architects Roderick Camilleri and Anthony Mangion to be handed a prison term.
“We never wanted to butt into the judicial process,” he said.
“All I can say is that there’s no justice in this world, there’s only justice when we move on to the next world. Nothing can bring Miriam back and this is a scar my two children and I have to carry all our lives.
“We marked Mother’s Day and Miriam’s birthday but she’s no longer with us and the cruel way she’s been taken away from us means the three of us are still seeking psychological support.”
Nothing can bring Miriam back and this is a scar my two children and I have to carry all our lives
Meanwhile, another victim of a similar construction accident, which took place just months before that of the Pace family home, said she has now lost all hope justice will be served in her own pending case.
Janet Walker’s Guardamangia home, located next to a massive construction site, collapsed in June 2019 and her family have yet to put the issue behind them, with court cases still pending. Walker has also still to return to her own home.
After learning about what she too described as a “lenient” judgment, Walker said she feared it would only serve to encourage the “free-for-all” behaviour rampant in the construction industry.
“This judgment will only continue to egg them on. If this is the outcome after a person died, I cannot even think what we will have to deal with.”
Since the incident, Walker and her family have been living in accommodation provided by the Housing Authority. There was no end in sight, she said, and the family had yet to close this horrendous chapter in their lives.
Also reacting to the judgment, two NGOs said justice has not been served.
Graffitti described Magistrate Joe Mifsud’s 98-page judgment as “shameful” and said the “ridiculous sentence” confirmed how little Malta’s authorities, laws and courts respected the value of life.
“Meanwhile, the developers have been given the signal that they can do what they want without consequence, something that has now come out of the court itself,” Graffitti said.
Civil society group Repubblika also said: “Today, the courts killed her [Pace] a second time.”
The woman was killed “while others were making money” and because of the “rush to fill up bank accounts while choking others in concrete”, Repubblika said. Times of Malta reached out to Kamra tal-Periti, the chamber of architects, for a comment, with a spokesperson saying the judgment was being reviewed.