St Paul’s Bay had the highest number of domestic violence and theft reports in 2020, data tabled in Parliament shows.

The information was provided by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri in reply to Parliamentary Questions by PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami.

The data shows that, in 2020, there were 4,037 reports of theft and 1,409 reports of domestic abuse across the Maltese Islands.

According to Camilleri’s response, the locality with the highest number of thefts was St Paul’s Bay, with 423 thefts reported throughout the year. A close second was St Julian’s, with 394 reported thefts.

The lowest number of thefts, on the other hand, belonged to Mtarfa, with three instances of thefts being reported. Lija, similarly, only reported four thefts in 2020.

Replying to the second PQ, Camilleri said that 93 cases of domestic violence were reported in St Paul’s Bay. There were 103 reports in Gozo, but the figures for the sister island were not broken down by locality.

Second on the list was Zabbar, with 83 repoerts, while both Qormi and Birzebbugia had 69 reports.

The lowest number of reports of domestic abuse came from Iklin, with four reports. Lija also recorded a low number, with five reports in total.

Malta saw a rise in domestic abuse since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the island in March 2020, with an alleged 1,416 reports being filed between March 2020 and December 2020.