13-month jail term for burgling elderly woman's house

A man was yesterday jailed for 13 months for burgling an elderly woman's Vittoriosa house five years ago while another man was cleared of the same charge.

Joseph Azzopardi, 29, also known as iz-Zikizok, of Tarxien, was found guilty of burgling 67-year-old Maria Assunta Bugeja's house and stealing Lm600 in cash and over Lm100 worth of jewellery on November 22, 1997.

Glenn Gatt, 21, of Vittoriosa, was acquitted of burgling the house with Azzopardi on lack of evidence.

Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona heard Bugeja explain that while she was asleep at home two hooded men burst into her house and stole jewellery and money. But she could not identify the burglars since she did not see their face.

The magistrate also heard a pawn-broker explain that Azzopardi had gone to him to pawn the jewellery stolen from Bugeja's house.

But although the pawn-broker recognised Azzopardi when it came to identifying Gatt he said he thought Gatt was the man he saw with Azzopardi because he had short hair.

Magistrate Micallef Trigona ruled that although he was convinced that the broker identified Azzopardi correctly, his identification of Gatt could have been erroneous. For this reason he could not find Gatt guilty.

Azzopardi argued that he could not be found guilty based solely on the pawn-broker's testimony because the broker could be said to have handled the stolen jewellery and therefore could be an accomplice.

He argued that the testimony of an accomplice alone could not be used to convict him because it had to be corroborated and in this case it was not.

But Magistrate Micallef Trigona said that there was no evidence to show that the pawn-broker was an accomplice.

He also noted that Azzopardi had failed to provide a valid reason as to how he came in possession of stolen jewellery and he found him guilty of theft.