Jake* had just turned 16 when he received a phone call informing him he was wanted at the police headquarters to be questioned about a crime he committed. When he eventually got there, clueless and accompanied by his suspicious father, he was told he was in trouble – for having sex when he was 15, with a girl who was one year younger than him.

“I did not know I did something wrong. In fact, I could not think of a reason why the police would want to speak to me,” says Jake, now 17, sitting at the office of his lawyer accompanied by his father.

A few days earlier, Jake and his ex-girlfriend, Jenny* were cleared of having sex with an underage person: each other. They were cleared after they chose not to testify against each other.

Magistrate Abigail Critien, who presided over their case in the Juvenile Court, suggested considering lowering the age of consent from 16 to 14.

If not, she said, the legislator should, at least, consider decriminalisation in cases where both underage minors of approximately the same age and same degree of maturity engage in consensual sex.

Her calls were echoed by child ambassadors who agreed that Malta needs ‘Romeo and Juliet’ laws that decriminalise underage, consensual sex between close-in-age teens.

Children’s Commissioner Antoinette Vassallo, the National Youth Council and the president of the Eurochild network, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca agreed that dropping the age of consent from 16 to 14 is not the solution. They also agreed on the need to improve sex education in schools.

Jake was 15 when he started dating Jenny who was a year younger than him at school. They went out for a few weeks during which time the couple had consensual sex. They eventually broke up. Jake turned 16 and, about two months later, he received the call from the police.

“I was at work when they called. They told me I had to go to the police headquarters whenever I could. They did not tell me why. I imagined I was in a lot of trouble but could not think why. I knew I had done nothing wrong. So I called my father and told him what happened. He picked me up from work and we went to the headquarters,” Jake recounts.

His dad explains that he was very worried at the time: “I got a big fright. I told him that if he did anything wrong he could tell me. He insisted he did not. He knew he did nothing wrong but I did not.”

The father took his son to the headquarters in Floriana and braced himself.

When they got there, police officers were “very nice”.

“Then they asked me if I knew the girl,” Jake recalled. They told him that he had committed a crime by having sex with someone under 16.

Jake adds that he did not know, till today, how the police got involved and believes something must have forced Jenny to speak out about having sex.

He said that Jenny did not have a baby from their relationship, as was previously reported.

When the father realised what this was all about, he could not believe it.

“I told the police officer they should arrest all young people from the dawn of time. Once there was no rape and there was no age difference, they did nothing wrong in my eyes. These were two kids,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jake could not believe this was happening. “Many of my friends my age have children and never ended up in court. It was also embarrassing that I had to talk about the subject with my parents,” he said.

Jake and Jenny ended up in the Juvenile Court charged with having sex with an underage person.

“In court, I was terrified. I was scared I’d be found guilty,” he said. The two appeared in court on two occasions. The second time was when the magistrate handed down judgment.

“There were other young people present in the court room when she read out the judgment. I was worried as there were two of my friends there and I felt embarrassed,” he said, adding that he had no idea what was happening and only realised he was acquitted when the lawyer, David Gatt, explained it after the sitting was over.

“It was a huge relief… It’s not fair that someone like me ends up in court,” he said agreeing that the law should be amended.

His father agreed: “The law is there but it certainly is not enforced and people are certainly not aware of this.”

The National Youth Council has spoken about the need for a comprehensive and intersectional sexual education programme to replace the current outdated one – the guidelines for which have not been updated since 2013.

It has also spoken about the urgent need to update Malta’s sexual health policy.

The outdated 2010 policy was originally meant to be released in 2021 but was sent back to the drawing board because the research it was based on was found to be years out of date. Its revision was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The health ministry said it will be launched for consultation by the end of 2024.

*Not their real names.