Malta: Ontario Canada police reopen sex abuse case against Godwin Scerri

By Craig Pearson,
The Windsor Star
Friday, April 16, 2010

The Ontario Provincial Police have reopened a case against a former Windsor-area priest accused of sexual assaulting minors here before moving to Malta where he faces similar charges.
"Allegations from the case recently came to light so it has been resurrected as a cold case," OPP spokeswoman Shawna Coulter said on Thursday.
"We are looking at any information we can get," she said.

A Canada-wide warrant for Rev. Godwin Scerri remains valid, and Coulter said the OPP would still like him extradited to face sex-abuse charges here.

Vatican spokesmen, in the meantime, say the Pope is considering meeting this weekend in Malta with victims of sexual assault at the hands of three priests, including Scerri.

The OPP charged Scerri in June 1993 with sexual assault and gross indecency, stemming from complaints by a 22-year-old man.
The complainant alleged the abuse occurred between 1983 and 1987 -- starting when the victim was 12 years old -- on Pelee Island and in Emeryville, where Scerri worked as a priest at St. William's Church.

Scerri never faced those allegations in court, however, since he had returned to his native Malta -- where he was named spiritual director of a girls' secondary school in the city of Rabat, according to the Malta Today newspaper.

In October 2003, Scerri and two other members of the Missionary Society of St. Paul -- Rev. Charles Pulis and Brother Joseph Bonnett -- were charged with abusing and raping children at the St. Joseph Home in Santa Venera.

Ten men who claim to have been sexually abused by members of the clergy are following a court proceeding in Malta concerning Scerri, Pulis and Bonnet. The tribunal, which has gone on intermittently since 2003, is closed to the public and few details have emerged.

Maltese reporters can't even say whether Scerri, Pulis and Bonnet are in custody or remain free. The Malta diocese has said none of the accused priests remain in positions of authority. The Malta diocese told The Star it will not comment on the situation.

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