WATCH | No justice for Matthew Bartolo: When a 17-year-old’s death is worth only €7,000

Nothing prepares you for the sudden death of a family member. The Bartolo family knows this all too well. 

It was a regular work day for Claudette Bartolo when, at 1pm on 4 June 2015, she received a call from her mother that Matthew, Claudette’s 17-year-old son, was in hospital with injuries. 

There was heavy traffic that day, so it took her a while to reach the hospital. When she did arrive, there was a security guard waiting for her to take her inside. “I would have never thought that I was going to go to the hospital to find out that he died.” 

Matthew Bartolo had just started working at the Construct Furniture factory in Luqa. That day, he was helping his supervisor with a woodworking router machine. However, when his supervisor started up the machine, Matthew got caught between the moving parts, suffering horrific injuries and multiple fractures before the machine could be stopped. He was rushed to hospital, where staff had tried to restart his heart for over an hour, but he was declared dead at 1:30pm that afternoon. 

As the family grieved Matthew’s death, they found little consolation from the company or the courts. In an interview with MaltaToday, the family said the company never offered an apology or any support. Meanwhile, in court the case for justice took 10 years to see through, and the final sentence last week was not the result they had been hoping for. 

“To this day I feel like I’m still in the dark, that I don’t know what happened exactly,” Claudette said, sitting in front of a mantlepiece with Matthew’s photos.  

Last week, the court fined one of the company directors €7,000, finding him guilty of breaching workplace safety laws. The court acquitted the other directors that were charged. The court found that there had been serious lapses in workplace safety, but it was the prosecution that failed to meet the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt required for the manslaughter charge.  

When asked whether they feel justice was served, the family answered with a resounding ‘no’. “They didn’t come close,” said John Pace, Matthew’s grandfather. “This isn’t justice.” 

The 10 years since Matthew’s death were made all the more painful by the court procedures, which went by at a snail’s pace. 

“One day it’s deferred, one day they don’t show up to court,” Carmen Pace, Matthew’s grandmother, remarked. “Not to mention the amount of leave [the parents] had to take and the depression they went through.” 

“This case shouldn’t have taken 10 years,” Claudette said her eyes displaying the everlasting pain of losing a child still in his prime. “We waited 10 years just to receive a sentence like that. It doesn’t make any sense. We deserve much better than that, after I lost a son because of someone else’s negligence. He had a future ahead of him. How can you not be hurt. How can you even believe in the court system.” 

Malta’s long-drawn-out court proceedings are a sore point for many who seek justice, and it has come under scrutiny abroad. In its 2025 Rule of Law report, the European Commission said these persistent delays are a serious concern, with civil, criminal and administrative cases being some of the slowest in the bloc. Malta’s judiciary remains under-resourced despite ongoing recruitment, and the number of judges and magistrates per capita is still among the lowest in the EU. 

The family had been hoping for a better and just sentence so that they can put the ordeal to rest. But that wasn’t the case. Now, the family will appeal the court’s decision. “We’re not going to bring him back, but justice needs to be served.” 

Matthew’s grandparents still keep framed photos of him on a cabinet in the living room. Hanging above it is a 2016 calendar dedicated to Matthew. “He had many dreams,” his mother said. “He was a fan of pyrotechnics, airplanes. He had so much left to do with his life.” 

His grandfather added that Matthew was waiting to turn 18 so that he can work to get his fireworks licence. “That’s why he had started working. He wanted to save up some money for a car, while he was studying at MCAST. He just wanted to work for a little bit.” 

To this day, the family still prepares a cake on Matthew’s birthday. They go to the cemetery and sing Happy Birthday to him. “We still feel it so much, despite 10 years having passed,” his grandmother said. “The pain remains.” 

What the family hopes for now is that the next steps in the court process do not drag on the way the initial case did. “I don’t think we’re asking for something out of this world,” Matthew’s mum said. “All we ask for is justice, just not in such a long timeframe.”