Parents file judicial protest after being denied access to daughter for 80 days

Parents whose seven-year-old daughter was taken into care on suspicion of sexual abuse have called on the authorities to either press charges against them or return her

The school reported the girl for playing with dolls in a suggestive manner
The school reported the girl for playing with dolls in a suggestive manner

Parents whose seven-year-old daughter was taken into care in December on suspicion of sexual abuse because of the way she played with dolls, have called on the authorities to either press charges against them or return her.

In a judicial protest filed against the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police, the parents claim that they had first got to know that the police suspected they were sexually abusing their daughter on 12 December 2016, when she was taken away from her school by the police.

The parents claim the authorities took their daughter out of their custody and placed her in foster care without telling them, simply because her school reported her for playing with dolls in a suggestive manner.

The parents are vehemently denying the suggestion that they had abused their daughter, but had waited and cooperated fully with the police hoping that this would help speed up the closing of the inquiry and their return to normal family life.

They had received a telephone call from a social worker telling them that she had been appointed by the court to visit their home and handle the case, which would cost them €350. The parents had promptly paid and had cooperated with the social worker and Appogg, also attending meetings organised by the support agency.

The parents say that since December, they have had no contact with their daughter whatsoever. Recently, a family member had spotted the girl with a woman in Gozo, leading the parents to discover that their daughter had been placed in to foster care there.

This was the first time they had heard any news of the girl as neither Appogg nor the court had communicated with them, the plaintiffs argue, condemning the fact that “such important decisions are taken behind the backs of the parents.”

The parents were informed by the police that the girl would be kept in their care until the inquiry concludes and a decision was made on whether to prosecute.

“It is unacceptable that an inquiry revolving around the behaviour of a seven-year-old girl with a doll had not been completed after almost 80 days...it emerges clearly that the state has totally failed to safeguard against the breakup of a family.” The state should make an effort to find other methods to protect children and not resort to “the most draconian solution that has shattered this family,” the protest read.

Reminding the defendants that the plaintiffs are presumed innocent until proven guilty, the protest states that irrespective of the outcome of judicial proceedings, the girl has suffered irreparable harm and trauma by being uprooted from her family and made to live with strangers. “Certainly all this was not done with the best interests of the child in mind.”

Lawyers David Camilleri and Joseph Gatt signed the protest.

According to data tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, there were 254 verified cases of child abuse investigated in 2016.