A man who had been deprived of any contact with his minor son by the mother who was blatantly breaching court orders for the past year has accused the police of “inaction” over his situation. 

The Maltese lawyer, locked in acrimonious proceedings before the Family Court, had been granted “free, wide and full access” to the couple’s minor child, including daily phone calls between father and son. 

Yet, despite a court decision in October 2018, the father had since been deprived of every form of access to the boy by the mother who was blatantly breaching court orders, “directly defying the Court authority without a valid reason at law.”

In spite of flagging the matter to the police several times over, all emails, letters and attempts to set up meetings with the police officers involved, allegedly went unheeded and the mother’s flagrant defiance of court orders continued unpunished.

Five months after the judgment by the Family Court, the father had even filed a formal complaint, asking the police to take criminal action against the mother.

However, to date no effective action had been taken and the father has not seen his son for over a year.

When he recently contacted the police for the umpteenth time, requesting an update, he was presented with “contrasting versions” before finally being told to file fresh reports since any possible action on earlier reports was time-barred.

Such “carelessness and inaction” by the police in a matter that called for urgent action could no longer be tolerated, argued the father in a judicial protest filed before the First Hall of the Civil Court, claiming that such delay translated into damages.

Moreover, the situation amounted to a breach of rights of both father and son who were being denied communication by the mother who was “blatantly ignoring, breaching and defying the orders of the Maltese Courts”, he said, stating that the Police Commissioner was to be held responsible for damages. 

Lawyer Stefano Filletti signed the judicial protest.