Lay missionary guilty of falsely accusing priest of misappropriating funds

A lay missionary has been found guilty of knowingly accusing an innocent priest of a crime and of filing a false police report about the matter.

Luigi Duca, also known as Wiġi, from Għaxaq, had alleged that missionary Fr Anton Grech had misappropriated €89,776, which were intended for projects in Guatemala.

Duca accused the priest of keeping the money to himself instead of using it for the construction of homes, furniture and a chicken farm in Guatemala. The money was also used to assist the San Manuel Chapparon school.

Duca recanted the allegations in court but in a judgment handed down today, Magistrate Joe Mifsud ruled this was not the case.

Grech had given a detailed breakdown of how the money was spent when testifying in court. He also produced supporting documents.

The court heard the priest explain that he had asked Duca not to keep coming to Guatemala to help with the missions, because of his alcoholism.

Over the course of the hearings, over 20 witnesses testified, painting a picture of a missionary priest who had done nothing but good to the poor people of Guatemala.

The magistrate said that in cases involving a priest some people took great pleasure in spinning allegation as much as possible even if they were false. Mifsud said Malta could not keep tolerating freedom of expression to destroy people without them having the necessary remedy at law.

“The evidence clearly shows that the accused had known full well that the allegations were untrue and had really done this to harm the priest as a result of animosity that took root due to measures which the priest had taken against the accused when he was informed of shortcomings when he was in Guatemala doing voluntary work,” the magistrate said.

Mifsud had initially turned down Duca's request that he recuse himself from hearing the case.

Duca had claimed that the magistrate had been a consultant to the Gozo Ministry on relations with the Catholic church and that this meant that Mifsud could not be independent and impartial.

Magistrate Mifsud, in his decree on the matter, ruled that a reason for recusal must be concrete and not imagined.

“It is a known fact that this Court had served as a consultant for the Minister for Gozo till May 2015… but his role was not to coordinate relations between the State and the Catholic Church,” Mifsud ruled.

The magistrate had worked on a few initiatives relating to Christmas and Easter and had facilitated the restoration of the church parvis. In this case it was Duca who was accused of falsely accusing someone of a crime, insulting Grech and defaming him, and not the Church, the court said.

The presumption was that the magistrate was not partial or corrupt and that it was his duty to hear every case allocated to him.

The right to request a change in magistrate should not become a tool to create unfounded fears or forum shopping, Mifsud said.

Citing Salaman v The UK, a European Court of Human Rights judgment: "There is no reason to doubt in particular that a judge would regard his oath on taking judicial office as taking precedence over any other social commitments or obligations."

Duca was granted a conditional discharge on condition that he does not commit another crime in the next three years.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were counsel to Duca. Lawyer Kathleen Calleja Grima appeared for Grech. Inspector Anna Maria Xuereb prosectued.