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Commissioner of Police – ‘Crime conference would have been unnecessary’
Are readers being served well by press’s interest in the Sliema double-murder?
5 January 2012, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
4 min read
Commissioner of Police John Rizzo says a crime conference might have been detrimental to the criminal investigation.
Commissioner of Police John Rizzo said a crime conference was ruled out at the early stages of investigation into the Sliema double-murder, because he felt any detail that could emerge in public would have been detrimental to the criminal investigation.
The usually staid press reports of the New Year were enlivened by a mysterious double-murder that left Duncan Zammit, 32, and his alleged aggressor Nicholas Gera, 26, dead, setting tongues wagging and journalists probing all possible lines of criminal inquiry: this morning, breakfast programme TVAM featured Zammit's father-in-law Anglu Xuereb denying reports in l-orizzont that his daughter could have killed Gera as he attacked her husband; and tonight, Bondiplus will feature interviews with the victims' parents.
"I think the crime per se spoke for itself," Rizzo said of the double-murder. "A crime conference at that point would have been unnecessary."
Asked whether the crime conference could have quelled any of the speculation on the police leads in the crime, Rizzo said this was a particular case where every detail was being treated sensitively.
"It was not the time or the moment to have a crime conference on the murder. Our sole interest is to find the truth. But this does not rule out that we might have a conference in future."
Bloggers like markbiwwa have questioned the need to "satisfy the public curiosity on every single aspect of this confusing, obfuscated and intensely personal tragedy".
"It's not helping anyone. It's not helping the family members grieve and come to terms. It's not helping investigators, who must be drowning under a sea of false leads and useless comments. And it's not helping us, general public, in any way either, because most of this shit we've read is hearsay and doesn't actually affect us."
Many reposted his blogpost. Although his final comment betrays the very distinction between bloggers and mainstream media: "I am not the media. I'm just one man with a lot of opinions. I have no editorial policy and I write what I damn well please... And I'll be even more open right now. If you like what I do here and want to help out, contact me to donate or advertise."
But it's the mainstream media that should be mediating between the public's speculation and the police investigators, to show that the truth behind this murder is being sought, and justice being made.
What our readers said
Readers like Manuel Mangani, reacting to MaltaToday's report on Gera's funeral in which the priest called for a respectful silence on the case, said it was not just the public's speculation - now made visible on the online comments boards - that was fuelling media reports.
"Media reports based on nothing but speculation are fuelling further public debate. This crassly insensitive attitude towards the memories of the dead individuals and their hurting families has reached truly shameful proportions."
A more vociferous reader - anti-abortion campaigner Paul Vincenti - branded MaltaToday as having been "at the forefront of speculation and insinuations".
"We know newspapers are there to make money," Vincenti said when contacted by MaltaToday.
However his main bone of contention appears to be the fact that headlines - namely MaltaToday's story that police were not ruling out a crime of passion - are often not followed up by readers, who do not read the rest of the story.
"They tend to read just half of the story and come to a wrong conclusion at the end," Vincenti said.
Hardly newspapers' fault if readers are restricting themselves to just 50 per cent of a printed story, however...
"Yes, you have a valid point. It is shared responsibility. But when you reported that the crime of passion had not been ruled out, I don't see how this could help things," Vincenti said. "What I see are the infants in the room and the affected wife. I think it's way too soon to be speculative."
"I think I represent the majority of people here," Vincenti said. "The tragedy happened on New Year's Day, it's a very personal case, people are thinking... 'what if it had been me?'"
But perhaps that answers the public's question well: crime reports tend to be the most read stories because they reveal powerful human emotions like greed, violence and revenge, that sometimes say something about our society or who we are.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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IL-Mejtin qatt u qatt ma tkelmu!!!!!!
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@rjespersen Couldn't agree with you more. It seems highly unlikely that the attacker would have attacked with 2 knives. It is also extremely strange that the widow claims that the men said NOTHING to each other during the fight to death. She is lying in my opinion. At first instance she is protecting herself. She probably went to get the other knife to defend her husband or to give it to him. Now, why she is lying about the men not having spoken to each other, is possibly to protect the reputation of her husband and the family.
What is also very strange, is that the police was not called for 45 minutes and the neighbours heard the mother of the victim scream in the apartment before the police arrived? What happened in this 45 minutes?
It is too late now to get evidence for physical markers of homosexual congres, as the other man is already buried.
The thing in Malta in these "high profile" cases involving wealthy families is, that police eventually "loses evidence", if ever found anyway, media is too scared to tell the truth and money will save you from being sentenced.
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The officious and predictable way in which the commissioner reacted to holding a crime conference in a sense displays how out of tune the corps is with public reactions in this new information age. Yes it is likely that the investigations are professionally following time-honoured established rules and procedures for murder investigations but the public in this modern age of instantaneous information feels itself as a direct participant in this tragedy and wants to be kept informed with reliable information of the developments. It is not just a case of idly wagging tongues meddling in what is essentially private grief. There is a certain degree of genuine anxiety especially in young mothers who empathize and putatively imagine themselves in the terrible predicament of Mrs Xuereb and her inocent babies.
In a way the attitude of the commissioner reminds me of the aloof protocol based approach which the royal household initially adopted towards the public grief and outpouring at the death of a princess. Perhaps as the queen finally realised it is time for the commissioner to engage some public sensitive PR advisors and change tack.
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The big fat issue here is that it is counter-logical for anyone other than a master swordsman to attack another individual with two knives.
Anyone who knows anything about forensics or weaponry will tell you that it does not make any sense for someone who is not specifically trained to wield two blades to proceed upon an assault in such a manner.
This is a major outlier and it needs to be investigated. The flip side of this, of course, is that if Nicholas knew how to use a knife, it would not have taken thirty stab wounds to kill his intended victim: even an amateur swordsman can kill you with a single one, especially if you're defenceless and asleep.
I hope Maltese forensics experts have taken note of this. I hope too that it is the focus of the police investigation. People do not do things for nothing - there are aspects of this story that the wife is concealing. I find it hard to believe, for example, that the assailant did not utter a word throughout the assault. Was Nicholas a professionally-trained contract killer, or a seasoned psychopath with no emotive response? I think not. Someone driven to murder, even in the heat of the moment, usually has a lot to say.
I hope also that Malta approaches this tragedy in a mature fashion, setting its Catholic sentimentalities aside to afford utmost priority to establishing credible answers to what happened and why. I hope, for instance, that the autopsies on both men include thorough investigations aimed at unravelling the 'physical markers' of homosexual congress. Without going into specific details, for the sake of keeping this from becoming an anatomy lesson, I will satisfy those of you wondering what I'm talking about simply by saying that sexual union of the type practised between two men leaves distinguishable internal and external marks. Determining that at least one of the men was gay would, at least, allow for the possibilty of the intimatcy scenario some newspapers have talked about being correct. I only shed light on this because, according to reports, Nicholas knew his way around the penthouse.
Let's hope the police know a lot more than the media do. Let's hope they have the mettle to solve this puzzle.
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@halfeucitizen well said. It takes a foreigner to see the shits this country is in when it comes to justice, freedom of speech or democracy.
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I read a veil threat by one blogger that we should not ask questions because the police might investigate us. Wow - thank god we are EU citizens now. Yes - that would be typical of the police in Malta - using their time to intimidate people who demand they do their job - in the meantime, how long did it take them to question the one live witness to the whole event?
As for silence is golden - i think you meant ignorance is bliss, but probably what you admire so much is complacency. Most of you bloggers would have been perfect citizens in Nazi Germany.
Let me ask you a question - why don't say the Americans intervene and come to investigate this case? Its because they don't have the authority. Guess who gave the authority to the government of Malta - you did mate. So whether the 'authorities' do their job or not --- its your responsibility. Ultimately its on your heads. So if you want silence and ignorance as a way of live - don't vote, don't blog and basically don't exist.
If anyone of you ever read the bible or believe in a god - you should also know that ignorance is not an option. And silence is complicity. The Saints - i mean the real ones that died for their faith (not the ones rewarded for their political affiliations or for their work toward some church) - they would not have been martyred if they kept silent.
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@Godfrey Vella. agree 100% on your comments. Indeed certain comments should have been avoided,and some code of respect and ethics adhered to by the media. indeed at times uncomfortable truth will always remained enschrined under the mystery umbrella.
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Investigations have never been my job or hobby, but I understand that eventually the police will also investigate those who are 'inventing' things, to check if they have some kind of agenda.
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I am somewhat ambivalent about the issue of how the media is reporting on this crime. On the one hand I can understand how the families and friends of the deceased feel when reading certain news reports especially if and when they reveal things that were unknown about the individuals involved or worse still when what is reported is not true or severely distorted.
Yet, I quite understand people’s eagerness to understand what exactly happened and why. On first glance it appears to be voyeuristic, but I believe it is rooted in an anxiety that arises in us when we come across a situation that someone has so drastically broken the social norms that we live by. We all want to feel safe and the threat of physical harm is what can scare us most. Hence, when a murder is committed within our community, we want to understand the causes and motives; we want to understand that it was not a random or motiveless act, because in doing so we ourselves feel safer.
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"Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done"
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Two observations. Ms. Claire Xuereb is a public figure being the daughter of the well-known entrepreneur Anglu Xuereb and the chairperson of ITS hand-picked by Minister Dolores Cristina. Added to this, the case is not a clear one, so people will talk. It is true that both families should be left in peace to mourn, but this does not mean that the public does not need to know what really happened. I, for one would like to know who really committed the murders considering the public profile of Ms. Xuereb.
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Silence is golden.
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You can always depend on one thing when it comes to Maltese - they always know which side of their bread is buttered up. The cover up is well and truly underway and now its the public demanding to know what happened that is under investigation. I think we should wait for the charade to play out and then see if the bozos trying to suck up to power friends if they will be so vociferous when the whole affair is whitewashed, the police live up to what is now their emblem (the dumb, deaf and blind monkeys) and justice in Malta would slide even further into the shit its in.
Last year we had another murder, when a totally sober , fully attentive, blue-eyed friend of the mafia's ruling elite killed another human being. Within 24hrs he had his yacht back and was declared totally innocent, despite conflicting evidence from those present.
Curiosity ? Is that what justice has been reduce ton in Malta. People have a right to know - its their country. The state WORKS in their name. Just because you 'inherited' a ministry from 'daddy' - this is still a REPRESENTATIVE democracy - and that means you represent us. So SHUT UP with the BS and give us the truth and satisfaction that justice is equal for all.
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At first glance, it would seem that the Police Commissioner is right - apart from seeming to be on the moral high ground. But one does have to pose the question: why is it common in other countries for the police to hold press conferences about high-profile crime cases? Surely it is not just to please a perverse curiosity among the public. Perhaps they have found that by giving factual information you actually quell and pre-empt rumours.
