“The State failed the mother of two because of a lack of resources and heavy workload”. This was the main conclusion of an inquiry led by retired judge Geoffrey Valenzia into the brutal murder of Bernice Cassar.

That inquiry report was presented last month.  But Ministers Byron Camilleri and Jonathan Attard waited until now before giving us some idea of what’s in it in a press conference. Both promised that “the recommendations and conclusions” will be published. Why not publish the full report? What are they hiding?

The ministers, in their press conference, refused to answer basic questions. They wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the inquiry found any single person responsible for failing to prevent Bernice Cassar’s murder. Cassar filed multiple police reports against her husband.  Days before her murder her lawyer pleaded with police to take action against him for breaching a protection order. They did nothing. We all know how that ended.

What can we glean from the Camilleri-Attard double act about the inquiry recommendations? That the judiciary should get more training. That the system used to assess the risk to victims should be changed. That the various entities dealing with domestic abuse should be better co-ordinated. That the education system should raise awareness about domestic violence.

But those were the exact same conclusions and recommendations contained in another report submitted to government almost 18 months ago. That report titled “Perpetrators of Domestic Violence” was left to gather dust by Abela’s Labour government. In fact Abela didn’t even bother publishing it.  We only know what it contained because the Times obtained a copy through a freedom of information request.  That report, authored by Professor Andrew Azzopardi and colleagues, spelt out what measures government had to take to better protect victims of domestic violence. But Abela did nothing.

Ironically the project that led to Azzopardi’s report was announced by Abela’s wife Lydia in December 2020. 20,000 euro of taxpayers’ money was spent on it. It was commissioned by the Tourism ministry and supported by the Office of the Wife of the Prime minister. Yes, apparently such an office exists - and you’re paying for it.  That report was submitted almost 18 months ago.  But it’s been kept secret.  Lydia Abela was asked why the report hadn’t been published.  She refused to reply.

We know exactly why it wasn’t published. That report painted a dismal picture of drained police officers, court delays that left victims’ lives on hold, collapsed court cases and a system in shambles.

It recommended setting up a judiciary team dedicated to hearing domestic violence cases, increasing support for burnt out police officers and exploring use of electronic tagging. That was over a year ago.

Byron Camilleri now decided to engage Professor Joe Cannataci to draw up changes to the law on electronic tagging. Had he taken steps when Azzopardi’s report was presented, over a year ago, the lives of Bernice Cassar and Rita Ellul might have been saved. Like Cassar, Ellul had reported her husband to the police for domestic violence. She was strangled, and her husband is charged with the murder.

But that’s Byron Camilleri for you.  He let several prisoners die before he finally did what everybody had long advised him to do - remove Alex Dalli. Camilleri is making it a habit of letting people die before doing what he should have done ages earlier. But Robert Abela keeps praising Camilleri calling him one of his “most productive ministers” even after he failed to sack Robert Brincau who threatened people with a gun.

Only now is Jonathan Attard promising to act.  “The recent appointment of new magistrates will enable one more magistrate to be allocated to domestic violence cases,” he declared. Until Bernice Cassar’s death there was only a single magistrate assigned to such cases.  The two ministers stated in their press conference that “the authorities are also discussing the creation of another family court”.  The time of discussing has long passed - especially for Bernice Cassar, Rita Ellul and their families.

This is what Labour has to offer. Labour was told clearly by Andrew Azzopardi what it had to do to mitigate the risk for victims of domestic abuse.  Instead Labour hid his report.  It did nothing except squander 20,000 euro of taxpayer’s money and then left the report to gather dust.

Now Labour has spent thousands more on another report delivered last month which unsurprisingly reaches the precise same conclusions that Azzopardi’s did.  It makes the exact same recommendations.

The bitterest conclusion of Valenzia’s report is that the lack of resources was responsible for Bernice Cassar’s death. Labour chose not to allocate the resources required to fix “the shambles” that Azzopardi exposed months earlier.

Instead they spent 1.17 million on green walls, half of which have already wilted or blown away.  They’re spending undeclared tens of thousands, if not more, on a ridiculous musical biography about the life of a certain Mary Spiteri, whose mediocre claim to fame is singing in a Eurovision song contest and insulting PN supporters.  “Mary Spiteri accepted to open up about her private life,” former ONE chairman Jason Micallef announced. Who cares?

Labour’s found 4 million euros out of our money to tile the tal-Qroqq tunnel, only for those tiles to start to fall off barely a year after they were installed. Robert Abela’s OPM squandered 1 million euro of our taxes in just one year to promote propaganda boosting Labour’s “achievements”.  He can add Bernice Cassar’s death to those achievements.