Nurse said inmate had no injuries

A nurse who saw a Dutch inmate shortly after he was allegedly beaten by prison guards last week said the man did not require medical attention, even though he was referred to hospital a day later with a broken arm and ribs.

The detail, which was revealed to The Sunday Times by prison director Sandro Gatt, adds a new twist to the incident. Yesterday four prison guards were charged after allegedly beating 32-year-old drug trafficker Perry Ingomar Toornstra.

The guards - Francis Debono, Francis Meli, Daniel Cuschieri and George Falzon - pleaded not guilty to violently assaulting Mr Toornstra. Mr Debono and Mr Meli, both experienced guards, were also separately charged with "carelessly" allowing Mr Toornstra to escape. They were all denied bail and remanded in custody.

The Dutchman gave the guards the slip on the morning of August 9 as he was being returned to the Corradino Correctional Facility after being granted an hour's prison leave to see his mother.

He only managed to make it to Paola square, however, before being apprehended by the guards who then took him to the prison and allegedly beat him repeatedly.

Mr Toornstra was taken to a cell in the solitary confinement area immediately afterwards, where he would not be able to communicate with anybody, and was only taken to hospital for treatment on Monday. The inmate complained about the pain immediately, yet the nurse who visited him said he did not need to see a doctor, Mr Gatt said.

A doctor on call at the prison on Sunday saw him during a routine visit in the evening and referred him to hospital. The inmate was taken to Mater Dei the following morning and stayed there under observation till Tuesday.

When asked by The Sunday Times whether he would be looking into the nurse's assessment, Mr Gatt said he was unable to comment since a magisterial inquiry was underway.

Mr Gatt said the doctor had merely told him that Mr Toornstra would be going to hospital for an X-ray. It was only once the prisoner was at Mater Dei that he accused the guards of beating him - when he was seen by prison board chairman Ivan Mifsud.

Personnel from the Dutch Embassy, who had been called by a friend of the inmate, also visited Mr Toornstra in hospital.

The director at first would not go into why the four prison guards were not suspended when the allegations of abuse were made last Monday, but later said it was not procedural practice for the prison to suspend personnel at the centre of such allegations.

"As soon as there was a positive identification on Thursday they were suspended," he said.

Unusually, the prosecuting inspector raised no objection either to the defence counsel's request for bail or to the request to ban publication of their names.

Nonetheless, the magistrate turned down both requests, insisting that there was nothing in the circumstances which justified a ban on the publication of the guards' identity.

From the start, in fact, the prosecuting officers seemed uncomfortable with the proceedings, mingling with the accused before the magistrate walked in. Later, an officer escorting them even asked photographers and cameramen standing outside the law courts not to take photographs.

When their request was turned down, an escorting officer told reporters that the accused would be coming out a different exit to the one where the cameramen were placed.

The magistrate acceded to a request for the guards to be remanded in an alternative location to the Corradino prison, since they could be vulnerable to attacks by other inmates.