A 34-year-old nursing aide, accused by a woman of molesting her son, used his access to children's medical files to contact them and collect their Holy Communion pictures for an album that eventually included 60 boys.
The boy said the man would touch him here and there
Details of Keith Falzon's "passion" emerged in court yesterday before he was handed down a suspended sentence and general perpetual interdiction for taking information as a public official. The interdiction means he can no longer be employed with the government.
After having obtained the particulars of the boys, aged between eight and 14, Mr Falzon searched Holy Communion and Confirmation pictures of them from photographers across the island. His album also contained the children's birth certificates and other information about them, including who their parents were.
The collection was built up after Mr Falzon, who is a football scout, attended matches where the boys were playing. Mr Falzon, who once worked as a nursing aide at the Child Development and Assessment Unit of St Luke's Hospital, claimed the photo album was the result of his passion for football.
He likened his meticulous collection to the popular sticker albums collected by young and old of famous footballers and their clubs.
No sexually related charges were filed. Instead, Mr Falzon faced charges which ranged from disclosing official secrets and embezzlement to private interest in an adjudication, a charge usually filed in corruption cases. He was found guilty of embezzlement.
During the proceedings, however, several parents, who described him as a football coach, testified about the unusual behaviour the accused showed with their children.
A parent, who is not being named to protect her child, said that her son would often go to Mr Falzon's house to watch videos before he abruptly refused to go there again.
When he was asked why he did not want to go to Mr Falzon's place anymore, the boy said the man would touch him "here and there", the woman testified.
Another parent, who knew the accused through the Neocatechumenal religious group, said Mr Falzon would get "angry" whenever he was denied the opportunity to take his three sons, who all featured in the album, to the beach.
He said that Mr Falzon would also leave birthday cards for his sons at the house and once he found him giving a card to the youngest one to pass on to one of his brothers.
Although he never actually thought badly of him, this parent testified to feeling uncomfortable that Mr Falzon would phone their house and ask to speak to one of the children.
A few parents who took the witness stand could not explain how Mr Falzon got hold of their children's photos, though they all said that their children had at one point been in hospital or had played football.
One such parent said the picture in Mr Falzon's album was the same one he had given to hospital staff for the medical file.
Giving evidence in the case, Mr Falzon said he worked at St Luke's Hospital for two-and-a-half months around February 2004 where he befriended many children and one in particular.
He said that he even went out with the child with the approval of his parents and had given him a gift necklace together with a message saying: "That is to show you how much I love you".
He insisted there were no bad intentions behind this act but admitted he was interrogated by the police about the incident after lawyer Hugh Peralta, who at the time was chairman of a football club, queried his behaviour.
He insisted he had done nothing wrong, claiming that he never actually stole any hospital records or copies of them but simply remembered the information after looking it up. He insisted that when the data protection laws came into effect in 2004, he stopped this practice.
Magistrate Miriam Hayman threw out the private interest in adjudications charge, saying she could not understand how he could have been charged with this.
She did however find him guilty of taking the information from the database for his own use, aggravated by the fact that he is a public official, and jailed him for two years suspended for four.
She also handed down a general perpetual interdiction.
However, the Magistrate also appeared to accept the motivations Mr Falzon gave for collecting his album, saying she accepted that what Mr Falzon had done was out of pure passion for the game and without any malice.
She pointed out that, from reports drawn up by court appointed experts, it was evident that in the album there were also the positions that children played in.
Police Inspector Louise Calleja prosecuted while lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Mr Falzon.