Assistant head of school cleared of child abuse charges

Siggiewi man Anthony Callus, 46, was cleared of all charges of child abuse after being accused of having stroked a child with his private parts while lifting him out of the sea.

The member of the MUSEUM Christian doctrine society had suspended himself from his post in the society and his employment as assistant head in a school.  

The 10-year-old boy had claimed he was inappropriately touched, leading to charges of violent indecent assault, harassment, offending public morals and corruption of a minor.

The incident happened during a swimming outing on 24 August, where it was alleged that Callus lifted the boy out of the sea a number of times and then held him in such a way so that his private parts would rub against the boy from behind. 

After hearing the boy’s testimony, the court said it could not believe his version of events and was convinced it was not credible, and that it was physically impossible for the abuse to have been made in the way it was claimed.

The defence for Callus also made it clear that the boy had, before the alleged incident, refused to go to MUSEUM meetings, and that he had used his Facebook account to ‘like’ the Playboy TV and LA Playboy Plus fan pages.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Ronald Aquilina were defence counsel.

The incident had led the Malta Union of Teachers to write to the Prime Minister expressing concern “at the way cases of alleged child abuse are being treated by the police force, especially where educators are concerned”.

The MUT questioned why the same police inspector, who was investigating the case of another educator which had already dragged for over three years in the Gozo courts, did not properly investigate the cases before prosecuting the accused. “This methodology is ruining the lives of educators who are involved, who end up being suspended from their work or having to resign, after their personal and professional reputation is literally rubbished on a simple allegation.”

The union said it has been inundated with calls and emails from educators in various schools and volunteers in various organisations expressing their concern.