George Grech

The Commissioner who fell from grace

Embarrassment, shock and bewilderment were the words to describe the revelations that George Grech then acting as Commissioner of Police and Head of the security services was being investigated for alleged sexual offences. It is not everyday that a sex scandal hits one of the highest ranking public officials of the country and leads to his resignation. Last August, MaltaToday broke the story that rape charges were being made against the then Commissioner of Police and Head of the Secret Service, George Grech – from that day until he tendered his resignation the man made the headlines of all newspapers on a daily basis.

The revelations made by MaltaToday, which were closely followed by reports from the Labour media, were to trigger a saga where authorities initially refused to confirm or deny whether a magisterial inquiry against Mr Grech was actually taking place. Mr Grech’s accuser, Isabelle Azzopardi, was a Polish woman married to a Maltese businessman.

In its reportage MaltaToday made it a point to highlight the incompatibility of George Grech’s position as Head of the Security Services and as the Commissioner of Police. The newspaper raised serious concrns on the abuse of power and the insensitivity of the authorities to the whole case. Here still it covered the ‘two weights, two measures’ approach to other police officers who had been accused of alleged sexual abuses and had been suspended from their post.

Home Affairs minister Tonio Borg failed to rise to the occasion and insisted that he did not know anything about the investigation. This ‘silly’ stand was further compounded by the revelation that relations between George Grech and Tonio Borg were at breaking point.

Net TV and the rest of the Nationalist mesdia suggested that criminal minds were manipulating MaltaToday’s investigations in the whole episode.

On 19 August, George Grech denied the reports and told Radio 101 listeners that the roots of the story were linked to his success as Police Commissioner. Mr Grech later appeared as a guest on the TV show Bondicini, together with his wife, where he denied ever having had a relationship with Ms Azzopardi. But towards the end of the month, Minister for Home Affairs, Tonio Borg, confirmed that a magisterial inquiry was being conducted by Magistrate Hayman. The latter refused to give comments to MaltaToday.

As it turned out, Mrs Azzopardi had by-passed normal procedure and reported the alleged sexual assault to the court duty magistrate, rather than filing a report with the police as is the norm. Magistrate Hayman happened to be the magistrate on duty that day. The report contained allegations that on the 22 November of 2000 Mr Grech had attempted to rape her.

As some sectors of the press continued reporting the case, Mr Grech, too, was called to the witness stand. In reply to all the reports that had appeared in the media so far, he took the unprecedented step of confirming that he had indeed had a relationship with Mrs Azzopardi, which he insisted was consensual. While giving evidence Mr Grech also divulged highly intimate details of what went on between himself and Mrs Azzopardi, giving ‘l-Orizzont’ a field-day on the morrow. For days after his testimony, people in the streets could talk of nothing else except the infamous ‘body’ described in such detail in front of Magistrate Hayman. Mrs Azzopardi denied that she ever had a sexual relationship with the former Commissioner, describing his evidence as ‘wishful thinking’.

Throughout the inquiry Mrs Azzopardi’s and her husband’s motive in making the allegations were continuously questioned and at one point the couple were even accused with connections to the criminal underworld. Denials followed immediately. In the meantime, Mr Grech presented a judicial letter asking for the Court registrar to appoint somebody else instead of Magistrate Hayman to conduct the inquiry. He shed doubts on Magistrate Hayman’s impartiality by alleging that she was a friend of Mrs Azzopardi’s. Stories of a birthday gift which the Azzopardi’s had left at the Yacht Club for Magistrate Hayman started to circulate and it was found that this gift – which consisted of a bottle of Cassar de Malte champagne as well as perfume – had been stolen from the premises of the Yacht Club.

The Magisterial inquiry had in fact created a number of precedents in the Maltese legal systems. Magistrate Hayman accepted evidence by affidavit, rather than ‘viva voce’ as is normal practice. The magistrate also allowed Mr Grech to present his own list of witnesses, rather than determining who should be summoned to the witness stand herself. None of the parties involved is usually allowed to determine the course of the inquiry.

On 9 October, Magistrate Hayman presented the inquiry report to the Attorney General. The report was leaked to One News, who revealed that the magistrate had found sufficient ‘prima facie’ evidence to prosecute Mr Grech on five charges: blackmail, threat, attempted rape, misuse of public funds and misuse of the telephone system (it later emerged that Mr Grech’s phone bill ran up to Lm556.74, a substantial amount of which was due to calls being made to Mrs Azzopardi). Pending the Attorney General’s decision on whether to prosecute, Mr Grech had a meeting with the Prime Minister where he informed Dr Eddie Fenech Adami that he was going out on indefinite leave. The speculations on whether the indefinite leave had been taken voluntarily or whether Mr Grech had been politely asked to resign started immediately. Pending his resignation, the posts of Police Commissioner and head of the Secret Service were temporarily filled by Assistant Commissioner Joe Cachia and Herbert Agius, respectively.

On Wednesday 24 October the Attorney General finally reached a decision on Magistrate Hayman’s report. His bizarre conclusions was that the evidence presented by the magistrate was not sufficiently credible, reliable or safe to justify a prosecution. Criminal charges against Mr George Grech were immediately dropped. The Attorney General’s report heavily criticised the methodolgy followed by Magistrate Hayman during the inquiry, also questioning why the evidence was heard by affidavit rather than vivavoce.

The same week the Attorney General reached his decision, John Rizzo was appointed new Commissioner of Police, quelling any speculations that Mr Grech might be asked to resume his duties once again.