Malta not doing enough to reach out and treat paedophiles, expert says

Not enough is being done to reach people with paedophiliac tendencies before they commit a crime, a leading counsellor specialising in sex and relationships has warned.

Matthew Bartolo said Malta had no clinics where people with a sexual attraction to children could seek help.

“If you look at other countries like Germany, there are clinics where people can voluntarily and confidentially go for help and it’s much better than offering treatment in prison to people who have already committed a crime,” he told MaltaToday.

Bartolo refers to initiatives such as the Prevention Project Dunkelfeld, a pilot project in Germany that provides clinical and support services to individuals who are sexually attracted to children and want help controlling their sexual urges but are otherwise unknown to the legal authorities.

The pilot project was started in 2005 and by 2016, some 7,000 people had already sought treatment.

Paedophilia returned to the national agenda after two priests were recently charged with sexual abuse and rape of an altar boy.

Psychotherapist Mariella Dimech had told MaltaToday that while paedophiles who commit crimes are sentenced to prison, they still posed a risk to the community once they served their sentence because the root of the problem had not been addressed.

Bartolo agreed with the assessment, noting that once someone is caught, there has already been a victim.

“So, if such clinics are offered locally, then we might be reducing the chances of this happening to victims,” he said.

Bartolo said that to protect children, people with these tendencies need to be given a space where they can discuss these urges and attractions.

Matthew Bartolo is a counsellor, and psychotherapist specialising in sex and relationships

Paedophilia is the sexual attraction and arousal by and because of prepubescent boys and girls. It has nothing to do with gender, and is solely based on age, Bartolo explained. Yet to date, there is currently no treatment available to get rid of the root of the problem and people with paedophiliac tendencies will have to learn how to control their urges.

“What is offered is support, both pharmacologically and therapeutically, to help people with such tendencies to stay away from high-risk situations, which can sometimes be their own jobs, like being a teacher or LSE, working close to children,” Bartolo said.

In his career, he has had people come forward because they know they might be a danger to children in the future. “They would be concerned about these tendencies or attractions, so they either come to check if it is paedophiliac tendencies or look for help to see how they can stay away,” he said.

Chemical castration as a form of treatment

Chemical castration has long been a controversial form of treatment, having first been used in 1944 to treat sex offenders.

Chemical castration therapy reduces an individual’s libido, making some offenders more responsive to the introduction of psychotherapy. This combination therapy is most often utilised in those who are at a high risk of offending.

Legislation allowing chemical castration exists in France, the UK, Poland, Russia, Macedonia, Belgium, Turkey and the US.

The international NGO Human Rights Watch has come out against the treatment, saying it will not provide a solution, and that it violates international human rights law. “Castration, chemical or otherwise, is a cruel and degrading form of corporal punishment,” the NGO said.

Bartolo is unsure as to what was ethically and morally right or wrong in this situation, noting that paedophiles were also sexually attracted to people their own age.

“People have a right to their sexuality and when you castrate someone what you’re also doing is stopping them from having sexual relationships with people their own age... It [chemical castration] might help them find it easier to fight the temptation, however, most people who commit a crime towards kids, are not exclusive paedophiles, but are primary paedophiles – so people who are attracted to people their age and younger children,” he said.

Bartolo said chemical castration would severely affect a person’s relationship with their spouse or partner.

“It’s difficult because we don’t want children to get hurt, but at the same time, shouldn’t people with these tendencies have a right to a sex life with people their own age? Do we have a right to castrate people?”

How do we protect our children?

Bartolo said that to protect children, age-appropriate sex education needed to be introduced early on – where they learn about safe people, safe places and what’s okay, and what’s not.

“We need to teach kids to trust their gut feeling more… So, if they feel uncomfortable doing something, they speak up. We should empower them to say no, and we need to teach them about consent from a very young age. So, if they don’t want to kiss grandma before they leave it’s okay, they can wave instead,” Bartolo said.

Bartolo said that instead of pushing kids to do things they don’t want to do with their body, “we need, to be able to empower them, to say no and for them to feel in control of their own bodies”.

It’s important to talk about sexual abuse and how it affects kids, especially when it’s from adults they trust, he added.

“Abuse affects how they trust authority and how they view the world, and it does cause a lot of confusion,” Bartolo said, adding it was important for victims to know that there is help out there.