A Turkish mother who is claiming her 16-year-old son was beaten up by a bunch of teenagers in Gżira in front of the police station has said that the treatment her son received at Mater Dei Hospital left much to be desired, also stating that the police were uncooperative.

Speaking to this newsroom, the victim’s mother whose name is not being published due to her concerns, said that she informed the authorities about the “traumatic experience” her family had gone through on Sunday 17 May and was told by the Police that they are investigating.

While regretting that she had to resort to sending a letter to the authorities and to the media, she said that “we feel let down by the lack of justice, in its broadest sense, we received in the treatment of this unfortunate incident”.

In reply to questions sent by this newspaper, the police communications office said allegations such as the ones made by this mother are always taken very seriously and the matter was investigated by the Internal Affairs Unit. This will result in the two persons being charged in court.

The following is a chronology of events as was stated by the mother.

The mother said: “My son was walking with his girlfriend (a Swedish national) towards her home in Gżira. There were some boys sitting on the benches who started swearing at my son’s girlfriend and my son told them to show some respect. The insults continued, so my son’s partner called her brother who encouraged them to walk home fast while he would watch over them from the balcony.”

She continued: “On walking back, my son was followed by this gang of 10 to 12 boys and was beaten up, thrown to the floor and was kicked repeatedly. Since my son’s partner and her brother were still checking on him, they ran to the scene, her brother was also kicked, and eventually the boys fled the scene.”

“My son’s partner’s family called us and told us what had happened. When we arrived on the scene, he was bleeding from his nose, his body was bruised and he was shaking. His and her clothes were covered in blood,” said the mother.

“We went straight to the police station where the only policewoman on duty was on the phone and she said she was not aware of what had happened (in front of the police station).

She continued: “We enquired whether she knew the boys who hung around in the area. At first she said yes, then changed tack and said no. She called the ambulance,” she said.

The mother said that when the ambulance arrived and her son was put on the stretcher, they did not administer him first aid or secure him when he was placed on the stretcher. She had to hold him so that he does not fall off the stretcher until they arrived at Mater Dei.

She also claimed that they were told to get a ticket and wait at the reception of the Emergency Department.

“The fact that we were asked to wait sounded strange when we had arrived with an ambulance. Nobody examined him at this stage to assure us that things were fine. We complained and asked for an immediate check-up and after 10 minutes we were shown the way to another section of the Emergency Department where we were made to wait for a doctor for two hours,” she said.

When she asked the nurse to clean off the blood and give him first-aid, the nurse said that the blood would “dry up soon and she needn’t worry”.

Eventually, the parents of the youth were referred to the Sliema police station. They were asked to return a few days later to identify some people. The father of her son’s partner went to the station and was told that his daughter needn’t identify anyone and was told by police “not to remember their faces”.

“He was shocked and protested. A police officer told him to watch out since if he continued to talk like this he would arrest him. She said that the police officer told him that “All you foreigners think you are Gods and that you can solve everything.”

Two individuals who formed part of the gang were eventually identified.

The family were also billed for the treatment they received at Mater Dei.