The care worker Norman Bugeja was forced to pay a heavy price after he touched four underage girls without their consent and asked for sexual favors, both verbally and with gestures.

After being found guilty for the aforementioned crimes, 61-year-old Bugeja was placed under a three-year probation order and fined €8,000.

The crimes took place four years ago in a residential house where he consistently harassed underage girls by touching them and offering them money for sexual favors.

The first two victims testified through video conferencing.

The first victim said that she came to Malta a few months before the harassment started. She explained that the residence housed both boys and girls, with the girls staying on the lower floor.

The residence, she said, was supervised by the coordinator of the house and the workers, including the accused.

She went on to say that whenever Bugeja was at work, he would visit her room in the early hours of the morning and offer her €‎50 in return for sexual pleasures.

“He would wake me up and ask me to follow him. He was waving a €50 note, telling me something and exposing his private parts. Sometimes she even woke me up by throwing water on my face,” she said, according to a TVM court report.

Meanwhile, the second girl claimed that Bugeja started behaving inappropriately in the first week of her stay at the residence.

On one occasion, he even tried to convince her to sleep with him.

“Once I bent down to collect the washing and he came from behind me, touched my back and offered me €20 to sleep with him,” she recounted.

The witness stand was then approached by the third victim who said that she had been living in the residence for about six weeks when the crime occurred.

“Once I was in bed and I saw the defendant break the legs of one of the victims while she was crying. The girl told us that the accused had offered her money for sexual pleasures and showed her his private parts.”

“On one occasion, he even asked me to kiss him,” she continued.

The fourth and last victim said that Bugeja used to wake up the girls by dousing them with water.

The Court declared that it did not think that Bugeja’s behavior required imprisonment. Rather, Court Magistrate Claire Stafrace explained that the most ideal punishment for the accused would be community service and a fine. He was also ordered to pay €‎2,334.55 in court costs.

The prosecution also accused Bugeja of having committed illegal acts while he was a public official and with a crime against morals due to indecent behavior in a public place. However, the Magistrate did not find him guilty of these two charges because there was not enough evidence.

Despite the fact that his behavior raised several red flags indicating that he is a danger to society and more specifically, children, Bugeja was still given a lenient sentence that does not include any rehabilitation or distance from children under another age.

This, once again, highlights the systemic flaws in our judicial structures that ignore the warning signs and thus pave the way for more serious crimes to be committed.

What do you think about the Court’s decision?