Man cleared of stealing paintings

A man was yesterday cleared of stealing paintings from a judge's house after a magistrate ruled that, although his fingerprints were found on a plastic bag used to cover the stolen paintings, this circumstantial evidence was not sufficient to convict a man.

Magistrate Anthony Vella cleared Ian Farrugia, 33, of Sta Venera of stealing the paintings - including a Carvaggio - from Judge Giovanni Bonello's Valletta house on April 5, 2004.

"The court feels that it cannot jail someone for seven years on the basis of probability or on suspicion... The fact that this one circumstantial evidence had not been corroborated by other evidence left the court no choice other than to clear the defendant of these charges," Magistrate Vella ruled.

In the judgment, the magistrate outlined the facts of the case that emerged during the compilation of evidence against Mr Farrugia.

On April 5, 2004, the police were informed that several valuable paintings were stolen from the judge's residence.

Thieves had entered the house from the basement and removed slabs in the ceiling to make their way to the ground floor.

Following intensive investigations, the police located the paintings. Most were found in a Birkirkara garage and one in a house nearby.

The police identified several suspects and eventually arraigned Joseph Portelli and Mr Farrugia.

(Last year, Mr Portelli was jailed for four years after he admitted to handling the stolen works of art when he stored them in his garage. Mr Portelli's testimony was not deemed admissible in the case against Mr Farrugia.)

Magistrate Vella said that, in Mr Farrugia's case, the prosecution based its case on fingerprints that were not found on the scene of the crime, that is, at the judge's house.

The fingerprints were found on a transparent plastic bag covering some of the paintings in the Birkirkara garage.

After hearing a detailed account of how the fingerprints had been compared and matched, the magistrate ruled he was convinced they were Mr Farrugia's.

But the prints were the only evidence against him and the court did not feel it could find guilt on the strength of the fingerprints alone.

The magistrate said he would have liked to see evidence on whether Mr Farrugia had communicated with third parties before the stolen paintings were found.

He also noted that footprints found on the scene of the crime had not been compared to Mr Farrugia's prints.

Although Mr Farrugia's fingerprints had been found on the bag covering the paintings, and he had not provided an explanation as to how they had ended there, such considerations led the court to attribute guilt on a level of probability.

This was not the level of proof requested by law, the magistrate ruled.

Police Inspectors Geoffrey Azzopardi and Michael Mallia prosecuted.

Lawyer Edward Gatt appeared for Mr Farrugia.