Judgment annulled

An appeal court yesterday annulled a judgment handed down by the Magistrates' Court after ruling that a man had not been given a fair trial.

Mario Attard was originally given a six-month jail term suspended for a year and fined Lm275 by the Magistrates' Court for scratching Mario Vella Laurenti's car in St Julian's on June 21, 1997 between 3.30 and 4.15 p.m.

But Attard appealed, claiming he had asked the Magistrates' Court to appoint a technical expert to analyse the validity of a video tape but the expert had given his evidence in chambers and he had not been given a copy of the report. Nor had he been given a chance to make his case.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said he had consulted the file of the proceedings before the Magistrates' Court and suspected that the record of the proceedings did not reflect what had really taken place.

The judge also noted that the defendant's recurrent failure to turn up for the sittings had led the Magistrates' Court to decide the case without hearing his defence.

Mr Justice Galea Debono said that although he sympathised with the Magistrates' Court because of the unnecessary delays in the case, Attard had not been given a fair trial as was his right.

He transmitted the records of the case back to the Magistrates' Court for a hearing of the defence.