Jailed for 21 years for elderly man's murder

A Zejtun man was yesterday jailed for 21 years after he pleaded guilty to the murder of a 75-year-old man and the attempted murder of his 71-year-old sister, both his neighbours.

On handing down judgment, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono weighed Silvio Mangion's mental health condition, his clean criminal record and his early guilty plea against the serious nature of the crime - the robbery of two elderly people that resulted in the death of one and the serious injury of the other.

On Monday, Mangion, 38, pleaded guilty to the wilful homicide of Francesco Saverio Cassar and the attempted murder of his sister Guzeppa in Zejtun on August 16, 1998, at about 4 p.m.

The bill of indictment alleged that Mangion, who was unemployed at the time, had tried to burgle his neighbours' house but when the woman spotted him he decided he would have to kill the Cassars so that no one would recognise him.

So he swallowed pills and drank whisky to pluck up courage, rang the Cassars' doorbell, surprised the woman with a knife when she opened the door and stabbed her in the stomach and in her right arm.

She fought back and called her brother for help. Mangion turned on him and stabbed him in the chest. The victim did not survive the stabbing.

Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that the punishment for murder was life imprisonment but it could be reduced to between 18 and 30 years in the case of an early guilty plea.

Mangion had filed a guilty plea at an early stage of the proceedings, had a clean criminal record and had turned himself in to the police and released a statement admitting his guilt, the judge noted.

Mr Justice Galea Debono also took note of Mangion's mental health condition, among other things, despite the fact that jurors, in a trial aimed at determining Mangion's mental state, had returned a verdict declaring that the accused was not insane at the time of the commission of the crime.

The judge ruled that, although Mangion was criminally responsible for his actions, it was clear that he required constant medical treatment and that lack of such treatment could lead to serious consequences.

Due to these circumstance Dr Joe Mifsud, who was appointed legal aid for Mangion, and Assistant Attorney General Dr Anthony Barbara, prosecuting, agreed that Mangion should be given a lesser punishment.

On the other hand, Mr Justice Galea Debono noted the serious nature of the crime - the robbery of two elderly people that resulted in the death of one of them and serious injuries and a traumatic experience to the other.

Mr Justice Galea Debono jailed Mangion for 21 years and ordered that the time he spent in preventive custody be deducted from his jail term.

The judge recommended that prison authorities ensure that Mangion would be given all necessary medication and treatment for his condition and that his doctors would keep controlling and monitoring his behaviour while serving time.