Watch: When Simon Became Sion – Murder Victim’s Sister Details Grech’s Transitioning Years
Sion Grech felt like a woman from a very young age but wasn’t accepted by society and her relatives, a sister of the murder victim recounted in an emotional new interview.
Rita Borg spoke out on Jon Mallia’s podcast Il-Podcast ta’ Jon shortly after a jury cleared two men of murdering Grech in 2005, a bitter end to the family’s 18-year quest for justice.
Sion Grech was born as Simon Grech and never legally changed her name, with court records still referring to ‘Simon Grech’. However, Borg said that while the murder victim will always remain her brother in her eyes, they explicitly wanted to be called ‘Sion’ during her lifetime.
“They wouldn’t want us introducing them as ‘Simon’ when we went out because they were Sion… they wanted to be called Sion,” she said.
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Borg recounted how Sion, the only one of six siblings who was born male, had always loved cross-dressing and would sometimes wear their sisters’ clothing.
“Sion couldn’t wait for Carnival to come around so they could dress as a woman and I remember them wearing a skirt when they were only 7-8 years old. We didn’t have enough money to buy Carnival costumes so they would borrow clothes from women to make her outfit.”
“Sion didn’t tell us she was a woman until they were 16-17 years old but they didn’t need to because you could tell when they were a boy that they weren’t actually a boy.”
Borg said that the family found it hard to accept Sion’s decision, with their father, in particular, getting angry when he saw them cross-dressing.
“Our dad used to say – ‘Your siblings are all girls and they all wear jeans or a tracksuit… wear what you want outside but dress decently at home’…”
Jon Mallia’s full interview with Borg is currently only available to Patreon subscribers.
Grech was killed in 2005 when she was only 20-years-old, and her body was found in a Marsa field with at least 17 stab wounds.
Suspicions fell on Grech’s boyfriend Ismael Habesh, a Libyan national, and Tunisian national Faical Mahouachi, with a prostitute telling police that she witnessed the murder.
Borg said that Habesh used to take her sister to Marsa so she could sell herself as a prostitute and earn money to buy drugs for the both of them.
A vigil to commemorate Grech’s life and call for justice will take place in Valletta next week.
What’s your reaction to these new intimate details?
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