The police prosecuted parents and guardians after 40 children were left abandoned over the last five years, according to statistics.

A total of 33 reports involving 50 children, ranging from a newborn to 17-year-olds, were reported but not all resulted in court action, a police spokesman explained.

According to statistics provided to Times of Malta by the police, there were 10 reports each in 2017 and 2018, three child abandonment reports in 2019, doubling to six in 2020 and dropping to four cases last year.

St Paul’s Bay was the locality with most reported cases of child abandonment, with 12 cases in the past five years.

A wide range of scenarios

The spokesperson explained that the cases range from reports of children abandoned in cars or in other public spaces to children who strayed away from their parents or guardians.

There were a number of cases which, when investigated by the police, did not result in child abandonment and the case was, therefore, not pursued further.

Sources said these included reports by jealous neighbours, the result of pique with the child’s parents or reports filed by one parent against the other during the course of separation proceedings.

A closer look at the figures on an annual basis shows that out of the 10 cases reported in 2017, investigations indicated that two of the cases did not, in fact, amount to child abandonment. One was a report on two children, aged one and nine, who were supposedly abandoned in Għajnsielem and a case of a nine-year-old ‘abandoned’ in Pembroke.

A case of a two-year-old left alone in Birżebbuġa was referred to Aġenzija Appoġġ while a case of two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, abandoned in Paola, was referred to the police victim support unit.

Two cases involving children aged nine and 10, abandoned in St Paul’s Bay, were handed over to social workers.

The rest of the cases, in Qormi, St Paul’s Bay, Victoria and Żejtun, led to charges being filed in court. Some have been concluded and others are still pending.

The reports received in 2018 led to cases in court, eight of which have now been concluded. One case was referred to Aġenzija Appoġġ and the police decided not to proceed in another as investigations did not indicate it was a case of child abandonment.

The children included a newborn, later named Cristiano, abandoned in 2018 in St Paul’s Bay and who had made it to national headlines.

The other children were aged between one and 13 years.

A case involved the abandonment of three children aged five, eight and nine in Xgħajra, was reported in 2018. Court proceedings in this case have been concluded.

In 2019, the police received reports of abandoned children in Għaxaq, aged six and eight, Nadur, aged just six months, and Pembroke, aged five.

The Għaxaq case was referred to Appoġġ while court action was taken in the other two cases.

Three of the six reports received by the police in 2020 were disregarded as they felt there was no case.

The rest, which came from St Paul’s Bay and involved children aged seven, nine, 16 months and three years, were all taken to court.

The four cases reported to the police last year involved eight children aged between four and 13 years.

Criminal action was taken against a parent in all the cases, two of which were concluded and the other two are still pending.