Delia: parents share Sliema gang-attack fears

PN MP Adrian Delia said he was flooded with messages from parents after he publicly reported that his 14-year-old son was assaulted by a group of teenagers in Sliema. Several of those who contacted him described similar incidents and sent photographs of injuries, he told Times of Malta.

Delia said some families had not filed police reports out of fear of retaliation. "People are pleading with me to speak out about what happened," he said.

Speaking on Andrew Azzopardi's radio programme, Delia said he had dropped his son at Tigné Point to meet friends and planned to collect him around 9pm. He was then told his son had been involved in an incident. According to Delia, another youth approached the group, made a phone call, and about 15 people – some younger, some older – arrived. He described the group as "practically a gang." One friend stayed with his son; others fled. Delia said a video circulating online showed his son on the ground and that he could not give further detail because a police investigation is ongoing.

Police figures paint a different picture of reported child-on-child violence in Sliema: only two fights between minors were recorded last year, both in October, and 22 such reports over the past decade. A police spokesperson said Sliema logged its lowest crime rate since at least 1998 last year, citing stronger weekend presence in Tigné, Qui-Si-Sana and Bisazza Street and community policing. Delia's account, and the parents who contacted him, sit against that official record – and against residents' longer-running complaints about youth groups intimidating people in the locality.