Police officer charged with slightly injuring woman

A police sergeant was yesterday granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm200 after being accused of causing slight injuries to Catherine Sophie Pernot Sprangers, a French woman, in St Julians on May 10.

David Sant, 46, a policeman with 20 years service, was accused by Police Inspectors Simon Galea and Martin Sammut of committing a crime he was in duty bound to prevent.

He pleaded not guilty.

Public officers can be jailed for up to three months if convicted of such an offence.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Kris Busietta said they believed there were no grounds to arraign their client under arrest as the case took place on May 10 and the woman had not even filed a report herself.

However, they were not formally contesting the arrest in order not to complicate matters. Inspector Sammut said the police started investigating the case on Wednesday after photographs appeared in MaltaToday.

They arrested PS Sant and later obtained a copy of the video from which the photos had been lifted. They traced the French woman also on Wednesday and she was interviewed yesterday.

The defence asked for a copy of the video recording and for copies of the medical certificate and photographs of injuries the policeman had allegedly sustained in the incident. It also asked the court whether any steps would be taken against the woman for assaulting a police officer.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona, ordered the video, medical certificate and photos to be exhibited in court and granted the accused bail.

The court said it was not in a position to say whether steps would be taken against the woman and the defence had other avenues to challenge this.

The prosecution informed the court that PS Sant had been suspended from the force.