I often attend court sittings and while there listen to witnesses, both from the public and the police, state that a person accused of some crime was heard to blaspheme continuously while being apprehended.

A typical case is one I happened to come upon last week where no fewer than four police officers testified that the accused was heard to call the name of Our Lady in vain at least "three times for each ten words uttered" in a public place.

However in this case, as in the cases mentioned earlier, the police do not include the charge of blaspheming in public with the other charges, such as assault.

This is a common occurrence and the Police Commissioner should explain if blaspheming in public is still considered as being a crime.