Updated | Police to appeal bail for Gozo priest charged with child abuse

Clarificaton: this article erroneously referred to the defendant's previous employment as having been inside a Church school.

The police intend to file an appeal against bail, after a a young priest was yesterday allowed out against a €5,000 personal guarantee and €1,000 deposit after pleading not guilty to charges of child molestation, in what is understood to have been criminal acts taking place over several months and involving a number of minors.

The priest has been prohibited from approaching the victims and their homes, the court said in its bail conditions.

Sources told MaltaToday that the accused has been a priest for around 10 to 12 years and he was recently employed as a religion teacher at a boys’ secondary state school in Hamrun.

Victims were said to be aged close to 15, but one of the girls is said to be aged eight years old.

Standing before Magistrate Paul Coppini at the Gozo courts, the priest, whose name cannot be published by court order, appeared wearing casual clothes and a pair of flip flops after he was summonsed to court by arrest.

The priest, believed to be in his early 40s, covered his face as he was taken in to court.

At the start of the sitting, the priest’s defence lawyer, Carmelo Gauci, requested that the case be heard behind closed doors, and almost immediately, Magistrate Coppini upheld the request.

Reporters and members of the media were subsequently ordered to leave the courtroom, and the court imposed the ban on publication of the names of the priest and his victims.

It is unclear whether the priest is being charged with rape and other sexual abuse offences.

Sources close to the case told MaltaToday that a number of minors, all girls, are victims of the alleged abuse, and that despite the court banning the publication of the name and details of the accused, the priest was “well known to Gozitan families.”

“When the girls were approached for questioning, they knew instantly on what and about whom they were being asked about. Gozitans know who he is," a source close to the investigation said. “Some witnesses, who are still young, are afraid to testify.”

The sitting was initially meant to be held today, but it is thought that the magistrate put the sitting forward by 24 hours after arguing that the prosecution had enough evidence to proceed.

Sources close to the investigation also said the priest was said to have been in the company of 15-year-old girls in his boat.

At the end of the sitting, the priest was seen leaving the courtroom with his lawyer, and he did not cover his face in full view of journalists present. The accused then got into a white Toyota Yaris, covered his face with a sun shield, and sped off to avoid journalists and members of the media.

The decision to ban the publication of proceedings, his name and names of the victims is in contrast to a decision taken by the Maltese courts last week when a court turned down a request by a Valletta man for his name not to be published. The man was accused of raping and sexually abusing a minor.

Inspector Sylvana Briffa is leading the prosecution.

This was the first arraignment of a priest on sex-related charges since November 2012 when Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis, formerly members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, were sentenced to five and six years' imprisonment respectively for sexually abusing boys in their care at St Joseph Home in Santa Venera.