Child torn between feuding parents testifies against mother

Lisa May Camilleri is pleading not guilty to having lied under oath, and to instigating her daughter to testify that her father had raped her several times.

A wave of surprise rippled through Magistrate Ian Farrugia's courtroom earlier today as 21 year-old Leanne Camilleri chose totestify against her "controlling and possessive” mother Lisa May Camilleri - who is accused of perjury and instigating her daughter to give false testimony- in person today. 

The sordid and unhappy tale of a child torn between feuding parents had resulted in Leanne’s father Emanuel being jailed for two years after he was found guilty of defiling the girl – a conviction which was subsequently overturned when the girl had recanted her allegations during his appeal and after medical tests proved that Leanne was still a virgin.

Lisa May Camilleri is pleading not guilty to having lied under oath, and to instigating her daughter to testify that her father had raped her several times.

This morning, defence counsel Martin Fenech strongly opposed a request that the girl testify via videoconference, asking that she ought to undergo psychiatric evaluation beforehand. The girl was “unfit to stand trial” and “mentally unstable,” said the lawyer, at which point the girl’s lawyer, Maxilene Pace, pointed out that neither was she on trial. Calling the defence’s bluff, Pace told the court that the girl was outside the courtroom and was willing to testify, in person, immediately. The prosecution then withdrew its request that the witness testify in chambers. The request for psychological evaluation was refused by the court and so, the 21 year-old took to the witness stand.

“I had been sick of the lie,” the girl told magistrate Ian Farrugia this morning. “My mum was celebrating because my dad was in prison and after a while I said that it was enough and I had my own independence. The lie was weighing down on me because I didn’t want my dad to continue to suffer.”

Inspector Sandro Camilleri asked her whether anyone had made her change her version. “I decided of my own accord, to tell the whole truth to the inspector. I could not hold it inside anymore. Nobody told me to say anything.”

Asked why she had continued to lie under oath, she said the the mother had brainwashed her into unquestioning obedience ruled by fear. “If I told the truth, my mum would throw me out onto the streets,” said the girl, adding that this had happened on several occasions. She was terrified of her mother, who would regularly threaten and sometimes attack her.

Usually her grandmother would take her to school, she said, but on one occasion, her mother did the school run and took the opportunity to brief the daughter on what she was going to tell the court, trying to prompt her to remember that her father had touched her. Afterwards the mother and grandmother took her to a lawyer, who had asked her whether she was there of her own will and whether the stories were true. “At the time I was very confused. He asked me what had happened. I told him the narrative my mum had fed me minutes before in the car.”

She had spoken to psychologists and social workers and Appoġġ. Magistrate Farrugia gently asked her whether she had ever dropped her guard and told someone the truth. “No, I was too scared of my mum,” she replied.

“My grandma and mum had told me to say that I had come from my dad’s. While they were washing me they had seen blood on her panty and had asked her why, as this was not normal for a ten year old. Then I started crying and said that my dad had abused me. That was how the story went,” she told the court.

She said she “felt really free” when she finally testified to the true version of events in court. “It didn’t happen, or at least I do not remember it happening, but at age ten these things would not cross my mind.”

Leanne Camilleri had gone to live with her grandmother in Marsaxlokk at the age of 7, after her parents’ separation. “Nanna would blaspheme a lot,” she recalled.

Asked by the court if her mum ever had any boyfriends, she replied “yes, many. She was always with young men.”

“After they separated, I remember that my brother and I would spend time with daddy, playing.” She said her mother would warn her to look out for what her father would do and say and report back to her if he said anything about the mother.

Sometimes Lisa May would call him up afterwards and argue with him. The passage of time had made it hard to remember details, she said, but she vividly remembered the day when her mother had picked her up from school and taken her to her grandmother – a fact not lost on the court, who pointed this out to her on several occasions.

“My mum said that I would be better off in a home. She was very controlling and possessive and would try to convince me that my dad had done stuff to me. She would say that I was a liar and a prostitute and that I would be doing her a favour if I reported her as she would spend four days in prison.

“I would sleep outside on the streets. One time in Marsaxlokk on a wooden bench, other times on doorsteps. I would go to the early morning mass to get some shelter.”

The court heard how, on one occasion after an argument with her mother, the girl had picked up her younger brother, who she would not leave alone with the accused and left home. “A kind soul offered us food. We would try to get a bus, but I would have no money.”

“I don’t know how my mother had the heart to do what she did to her own children. My brother died five years ago. “He was 11 or 12 at the time and was very scared.”

The girl had contacted TV show host Peppi Azzopardi to make a grand apology to her father. “I wanted to apologise for what I did to my dad. Whilst he was in prison, I was also imprisoned by this woman who made me do frightful things. I wanted to apologise to him.”

She repeated that she had told Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera the truth, out of her own free will. “That was all me, because my conscience made me speak. Right after I spoke, I felt the weight lift off my chest. She used me and my brother as weapons.”

As the magistrate was setting the date for the next hearing the end of today’s sitting, the girl piped up again. “I want to live my life. I have gone through enough. AlI I want to do is to carry on in the straight and narrow.”

Lawyer Martin Fenech is defending Lisa May Camilleri. Tonio Azzopardi appeared parte civile for the father. Maxilene Pace is legal counsel to Leanne Camilleri.