Not guilty of breaching bail conditions

A Valletta man was yesterday cleared of breaching his bail conditions when he stopped signing weekly at his local police station.

Magistrate Anthony Vella cleared 40-year-old Francis Grech after ruling that the prosecution had failed to provide the best proof that Mr Grech had breached the bail conditions as laid down in a ruling handed down on September 10, 1999.

This was because, although the prosecution had exhibited a copy of the 1999 bail ruling, it had not produced the complete case documents. This meant that the prosecution failed to prove that the original ruling was still valid and had not been updated.

Mr Grech was arraigned on the strength of a recent amendment to the law through which the breach of bail conditions became a criminal offence.

In his submissions yesterday, defence counsel José Herrera referred to the amendment which he termed as "amateurish".

Police Inspector Stephen Gatt prosecuted.