The Children's Commissioner in Malta has initiated a process which should eventually lead to the introduction of a paedophile register, although no definitive timeframes are in place yet.

The Commissioner, Carmen Zammit said that her office started consultations with the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children after her proposal to start working on the paedophile register was approved by the Social Policy Minister last May.

Once the office receives feedback from the different countries which form part of the network, a panel of local experts from different professional fields connected to child welfare will convene at the beginning of the year, "at the latest" to start discussing the technicalities. They will look into the best manner of introducing the register in a small society like Malta, Mrs Zammit said.

However, she was not in a position to say when the register would be in place because of "possible complications" that may be flagged up during meetings.

The idea of introducing a sex offenders' register was raised in mid-2006 following a controversy involving the Malta Football Association, which retained a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman in Paola at a ground that at the time doubled as a playing field for a nearby school.

The issue keeps re-emerging following convictions related to paedophilia, as was the recent case of a 61-year-old man found guilty of raping his partner's 10-year-old daughter.