Matthew Grech Malta: Top EU LGBT advisor tells court he reported trustee of NI charity Core Issues to police for allegedly advertising gay conversion therapy

During the online video interview with PMNews in May last year, he spoke about his own personal experience as a gay man who changed his identity after becoming a committed Christian.

He is being tried in a Maltese court on the criminal charge of advertising gay conversion therapy, which was outlawed in the EU state in 2016.

His trial - and that of presenters Mario Camilleri and Rita Bonnici - began on Friday. All three deny the charges,

Agius, an expert on the cabinet of EU Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, said that he had “suffered a lot” as a child because being “apparently different” made him a victim of violence.

He recalled how he “shook” while watching the live interview and watched it repeatedly to understand it.

“I was shaking… I know what I saw. I saw someone denigrating gays and offering a solution," the Times of Malta reported him as saying. "The solution was conversion therapy."

“He [Grech] is my antithesis. While I work at EU level to promote LGBTIQ rights, Matthew works to reduce those rights.”

He said that Grech was hardly challenged during the interview and that contrasting views were not presented.

Under cross-examination, Agius said that Grech did not explain what the conversation therapy actually consisted of.

Also giving testimony was Cynthia Chircop, volunteer coordinator with The Malta Gar Rights Movement. She too reported the programme to Maltese police.

Viewers of the programme would likely look up such practices and try to get in touch with IFTCC, said Chircop, explaining why she considered that this to amounted to advertising.

The programme had resurfaced emotions she used to experience in her youth, she said, when she would “feel bad” about being attracted to females in an all-girls school.

“Although my friends and parents supported me, I know there are vulnerable people in society who are not accepted… and there are parents who find it difficult to accept children who are gay or transgender, deeming it wrong," she said.

“LGBTIQ people face a greater risk of suicide because of the bullying, violence, denial of identity and discrimination they face on a daily basis."

She was unaware of an invitation to take part in the show that had been reportedly sent to her.

The defence lawyer for the presenters, Emmy Bezzina countered that his clients had been "respecting his [Grech’s] freedom of speech, a right safeguarded by the Constitution".

He said they did not live in "a dictatorship".

Asked if Grech advised all LGBTIQ people to resort to such therapies, she could not recall.

The trial continues in July.