There are 79 people on Malta’s Protection of Minors register, a court-sanctioned list of individuals who have committed serious abuses against children, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis revealed following a parliamentary question.

Coming into force in 2012, the register includes people who have been convicted of cases of rape, having sex with minors, child abduction, prostitution, pornography, trafficking in minors and the harassment and neglect of children.

The law is an essential tool to safeguard children. Once listed, a person cannot work or hold any position within an organisation involved in the education, care, custody and welfare of minors be they teachers, doctors, nurses, youth workers, police officers, voluntary workers, priests or social workers.

It also extends to voluntary organisations, such as children’s clubs, the scouts and guides, church and other social foundations who work with children.

By law, all organisations –public, private or voluntary – must ensure that anyone working with minors is cleared with the register before engagement

One child in Malta is sexually assaulted every five days. And while the register does help address the issue, there’s still a gaping hole in Maltese law which is allowing abusers to get away scot-free.

A key issue behind the glaring gap in catching sexual predators, particularly in child abuse cases, is time-barring, which prevents victims from reporting the incident to the police after a certain period

In Malta, the sexual abuse of a child is punishable by a maximum of eight years imprisonment, meaning that it is time-barred for a maximum of 10 years from the last incident of abuse.

This could go up to 15 years if the crime involved aggravating factors, such as if the abuse was continuous, carried out by a family member, or if the child was younger than 12.

To put things into perspective, if a child was molested at 7, then he only has until he is at most 22 to come forward.

Other countries have completely removed time-barring on such cases. Maybe Malta should do the same.

Do these figures surprise you?