The Lisa Maria Foundation said it finds it "very disturbing" that at a time where so much has been seen and said about child abuse, "a convicted child sex offender is given a platform and opportunity, outside of the formal justice system, to give a one sided version of his own interpretation of what happened in his specific case."

The Foundation spoke out against an interview by TVM presenter Ricky Caruana on his private podcast with Justin Haber. The Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal by Justin Haber, confirming his conviction for sexually harassing a teenage employee and ruling that the original punishment was fully justified given the seriousness of the offence.

In a statement, the Foundation said that the facts of the Justin Haber case have been presented in the courts and gone through the proper process. "At the end of that process Haber was found guilty."

"The judgement was further confirmed by the court of appeal and Haber's name has been placed on the sex offenders register. Following all of this, it is extremely sad that Ricky Caruana gave a platform to this convicted sex offender for him to 'have his say' - a say which was unchallenged by the interviewer and which showed total disregard to the outcome of the court ruling. Had Caruana challenged Haber in a journalistic fashion and asked the right questions it may have been different, but to simply behave in a way that looks like an exercise in reputation cleansing on a public platform is another case all together."

"The courts found that Haber had abused his power as an employer with a 14 year old girl - a minor. The court ruled that his behaviour merited him being listed on the sex offenders' register. To then give this person any platform to further defend his position is a blatant insult to the victim who should now be allowed to focus on her healing rather than have the ordeal raked up again in public and made to look like she was in some way responsible for what happened."

Besides the crass insensitivity of the way the podcast was managed, "together with the brazen attitude of the perpetrator of the abuse, this was a totally irresponsible use of a social media platform which has the potential to influence public opinion and minimise the severity of the case itself and of the abuse of children more generally."

The Lisa Maria Foundation said it continues to emphasise that the fight against child sexual abuse is the responsibility of the whole of society. "Every opportunity must be used by all to adopt proactive measures to avoid the abuse and harm of children and to react to allegations in a way which shows that we have zero tolerance towards abuse. Anything less is simply unacceptable and anything that promotes the cleansing of a convicted child abuser is despicable."