The family of Lisa Maria Zahra said today that she "was murdered by the very person who had a duty of care to look after her."
In a statement issued soon after Erin Tanti admitted to charges of murdering her in court and was sentenced to 20 years and six months in jail, the Zahra family said that "Losing a child is probably one of the worst things that one can experience in life. When this happens suddenly and as a result of the heartless actions of a third party it is even more difficult to comprehend.
"The past five years since Lisa Maria’s tragic death have been extremely difficult for all the Zahra family who had to come to terms with Lisa Maria’s death. Apart from the trauma of what happened, the long drawn out legal process, and the fact that as a family we could not publicly discuss the case to correct the misconceptions reported by some of the media, despite having seen all the clear evidence that Lisa Maria was murdered, made matters more difficult.
"Today we can finally speak out. By Erin Tanti’s own admission in court this morning, on the 19th of March 2014, Lisa Maria Zahra was murdered by the very person who had a duty of care to look after her. Erin Tanti was an adult. He was Lisa Maria’s drama teacher. Lisa Maria was his 15 year old student who would still be alive today were it not for this man. We have always known as a family that this was a case of murder and finally after a long drawn out five years Erin Tanti has admitted in court to the crime of murdering Lisa Maria.
"Lisa Maria was a beautiful 15 year old girl whose life was snatched away in the cruellest of ways. As a family we have set up the Lisa Maria Foundation in order to honour her memory and try and derive something positive out of this tragedy. The Foundation will continue to work hard in her name to do whatever possible to help safeguard our children and continue to ensure that there are the necessary checks and balances in place when people are employed and entrusted with the care of children. In this way we hope to keep Lisa Maria’s memory alive and work towards avoiding something like this ever happening again.
"On behalf of the family I would like to thank the police, not least Inspector Keith Arnaud, for the painstakingly detailed work that they did especially in the days following the tragedy. We would also like to thank our legal team Dr. Giannella DeMarco, Dr. Joe Gilgio, Dr. Stephen Tonna Lowell and Dr. Reuben Farrugia. We would like to also thank the Attorney General Dr Peter Grech and Dr. Philip Galea Farrugia for all their work on the case.
"Finally, we would also like to thank all our friends and everyone who has in some way shown support to Uncle Tony and the rest of the family. The care has been overwhelming and greatly appreciated."