Every parent or guardian who is entrusted with their child, has the responsibility to protect and take care of the minor. In addition, they also have the obligation to maintain, instruct and educate the children as provided by article 3B found in the Civil Code. Our law also caters for a criminal action in case such protection is not given to the child and they are mistreated. In fact, section 247A of the Criminal Code states that;
“Whosoever, having the responsibility of any child under twelve years of age, by means of persistent acts of commission or omission ill-treats the child or causes or allows the ill-treatment by similar means of the child… be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years”
Ill-treatment consists of lack of adequate nutrition, clothing, shelter, and protection from harm, persistently offending the child’s dignity and self-esteem in a serious manner and persistently imposing upon the child age-inappropriate tasks or hard physical labour. One important factor that should be noted, is that the parents/guardians do not have to commit an action, but they can omit from doing something resulting in the neglect of the needs of the child.
In cases like these, the prosecution is under a lot of pressure to prove that there is maltreatment since most times the situation would not be clear cut and the family environment would be disrupted by a lot of external circumstances. The case of Teper vs The Queen [1952] AC 480,489, illustrates that;
“It is also necessary before drawing the inference of the accused’s guilt from circumstantial evidence to be sure that there are no other co-existing circumstances which would weaken or destroy the inference.”
The prosecution has the duty to prove all the necessary elements for the crime to subsist, it is not the role of the defendant to prove they are innocent. In Malta, we value a lot the presumption of innocence to ensure our trials are fair, whereby everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
This shall not be construed to be as advice but shall merely serve as a brief description of the provisions on the ill-treatment of children. If you would like to get to know more about this please do not hesitate to contact us on [email protected].