Doctors are bound to report crimes and the case of four 15-year-olds who dared each other to get pregnant by the same man was definitely a crime, according to Dr Frank Portelli, who insists that a police report should have been filed.
This paper contacted Dr Portelli after he uploaded comments on Facebook arguing that doctors “should not hide behind the professional secret.”
The Malta Independent revealed last week that Police investigators are facing a number of closed doors for two reasons: the case was first revealed during confession, which means that the priest cannot disclose any information, and the GP who examined the girls is also bound by professional secrecy, at least according to the medical sources who spoke to The Malta Independent last week.
But Dr Portelli disagrees with this reasoning. “A 15-year old can never give valid consent for sex. If there was no consent this is technically statutory rape, which is a very serious crime. In a case like this doctors should act, in the best interests of society.”
The private hospital owner says that he would never examine a 15-year old girl without her parents’ consent. But if an accompanied under-age patient were to reveal a similar case like the one revealed by Mgr Anton Gouder last week, he would first advise the parents to file a police report and file a report himself if they did not.
“If a patient came in to my clinic with a suspicious looking knife wound I would be bound by law to make a police report. The pregnancy bet case is similar, I would report to the police because a serious crime would have been committed.” He also pointed out that if doctors fail to report crimes, they could even be charged with association.
Girls did not want to be identified
Dr Portelli also disagrees with the confession secret. “A priest does not necessarily have to identify the victim or the perpetrator, but the Police should be given some idea of what is going on. Imagine if a priest were to find out during confession that someone was going to set off a bomb. There is no need to divulge the source but should the priest not warn the authorities?”
Mgr Anton Gouder, who revealed the case last week, spoke on the subject again on RTK on Monday evening. The Curia’s Pro Vicar General said that the Police Vice Squad had contacted him because it wanted to investigate the case. He did not, however, give them the girl’s name. “I told them that I would first contact the girl and her mother, but when I did they told me that they did not want to press charges because they do not want to be identified.”
Mgr Gouder said that he only knows one of the four girls, and her mother, and he does not know whether the other three girls are pregnant.
He said that, if people like him reported every case to the police, people would not seek help. “This is a very delicate situation. If you know that your psychiatrist, therapist or social worker will tell the police you will not go to them to seek help.” Mgr Gouder also said he disagrees with mandatory reporting – laws that bind certain institutions – the church included – to file police reports if crimes are committed on their premises or against people under their care and responsibility.
This paper is, in the meantime, still waiting for replies to questions it sent to the Vice Squad last week.