A handful of computer cables and extension leads are all that is left of the computer room at St Augustine’s College primary school in Marsa.

They hang ominously at the back of a barren class, almost a symbolic reminder of the 14 brand new computers stolen on Christmas Day.

The theft has set the school back by €8,000 but what is particularly hurtful according to Fr Leslie Gatt, the college rector, is the fact that students have been denied valuable educational tools.

“Students came back from the Christmas holidays to a school with no computers... I am disappointed but it hurts more to know that we cannot give them the best educational tools,” he says.

There are healthier ways of helping yourself

The school caters for 450 primary school students and since January the college became the full proprietor of the building after the School of Music moved out.

The theft was discovered on Boxing Day by staff members, who went to clear up after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

The computer cables left by thieves who ransacked the primary school’s computer room. Photo: Jason Borg

“We had some 300 people here for Midnight Mass, mostly students, parents and relatives. We left the school at around 11pm, so the thieves did so over night or on Christmas Day,” Fr Gatt explains.

Whoever stole the computers had all the time in the world to disassemble the 14 units and also steal the boxes in which they were bought that were stored in an adjacent room to the computer lab.

After ransacking the room, the thieves made their way into the administrative part of the block by removing part of the soffit and jumping through the hole into the corridor. They gained access to the soffit by placing a chair on top of a table.

There was little to steal from the offices but a small public address system used during school assemblies was taken.

The operation appears to be the work of individuals who were well acquainted with the school.

The theft has forced the college to reset its priorities as it continues with its extensive programme to refurbish the building that was once a government school.

“We already had CCTV cameras [which were collected by the duty magistrate] but we now have to accelerate the work on apertures apart from deciding whether to buy new computers or wait and invest in a new lab,” Fr Gatt said.

The theft was a ‘Christmas present’ the college was not expecting and although anger would have been a justified reaction, Fr Gatt is true to the college’s Christian values when asked to relay a message to the perpetrators of the crime.

While he appeals for the computers to be returned, Fr Gatt has words of compassion: “I can understand that people who do these things may be passing through difficult times. But while stealing may appear a solution it complicates matters and creates difficulties for others. There are healthier ways of helping yourself, including seeking support from the various services offered by the Church.”

As the school management tries to figure out the best way forward the cables hanging in the former computer room are of little consolation. In all this the students are the biggest losers.