Night out binge lands woman in court on false report charge

A young woman on a night out got so drunk that she did not realise her bag had not been stolen but that she had given it to a friend to hold, the friend told a court yesterday.

Elizabeth Smith told Magistrate Lawrence Quintano that Emma Louise Mullally, 21, got extremely drunk on the night out and believed her bag had been stolen, forgetting she had given it to her to hold.

Smith testified in the case against Mullally, who is pleading not guilty to lodging a false report with the police.

"We went out and she got very, very drunk. I would say that's the drunkest I've seen a person who hadn't actually passed out.

"At one point during the evening she gave me her bag to hold while she made a phone call and we got separated. I went looking for her but couldn't find her and decided to go home.

"The next morning I went looking for Emma thinking she'd be mad at me because I had left her in the lurch but she wasn't. She was just very, very surprised to see her bag and told me she had reported it stolen.

"I reminded her that she had given me the bag to hold but she couldn't remember and I'm not surprised, because of the state she was in," Smith said.

"The next I heard of it was when the police sent for me and they made it sound like I had taken things from the bag. But when they hinted that I took Emma's mobile phone, I challenged them to come out with me and look in her bag because I knew she still had her phone.

"She had never given me the phone, only her bag. She had kept it because she was making a call from her phone at the time.

"The police came out and looked in her bag and found the phone. At first she was going to deny it was hers but when I told her to cut the crap, she came clean," Smith said.

Meanwhile Mullally was granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm500.

The case continues.

Police Inspector Carmelo Bartolo prosecuted.

Dr Stefano Filletti appeared for the defendant.