A collar with the inscription “Paulina Dembska” appeared on the statue of a cat in the Independence Garden in Sliema. The author of the sculpture decided to commemorate a Polish woman who was murdered nearby and came here to feed stray cats. The murder of the 29-year-old woman took place in January 2022.
The giant cat statue located in the Independence Garden in Sliema, Malta, is now adorned with a collar with the inscription “Paulina Dembska”. The detail commemorates a Polish woman murdered nearby. The author of the sculpture, Matthew Pandolfino, decided to hang it on the occasion of the third anniversary of the crime to pay tribute to the 29-year-old woman, known for her love of animals – reports the Times of Malta. The woman had been living in Malta for a long time. She published enthusiastic texts about the island on social media.
– Dembska's murder shocked me. Today I still feel angry about it, Pandolfino said in an interview with the portal. The artist admitted that “sometimes I feel that there is a lack of justice in Malta”, and he sees the case of the murder of a Polish woman as a “perfect” example of this.
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Three years have passed since the murder of Paulina Dembska
The 29-year-old was found dead in the Independence Garden on January 2, 2022. Her body was noticed by a passerby. 20-year-old Abner Aquilina was arrested in connection with the case. The man did not know the victim. According to experts, he was insane at the time of the crime. Despite the passage of three years since Dembska's death, he has not heard the verdict, and the case remains in the district court. Aquilina pleads not guilty.
Dembska's murder shocked Malta and contributed to the introduction of the category of femicide, i.e. murder motivated by gender, into the Maltese Penal Code. The regulations were changed in June 2022, reports Times of Malta. The portal notes that in the Independence Garden, where the 29-year-old regularly fed stray cats and where her body was found, not only a sculpture reminds her of her, but also a mural painted in her honor and benches dedicated to the victims of femicide.
Main photo source: Shutterstock