Drug addict makes progress, gets jail term suspended

An appeals court suspended a drug dealer's jail term after finding he had made great progress by following a tailor-made rehabilitation programme.

Paul Mercieca, 48, was found guilty last November of possessing and trafficking in heroin and relapsing in April, 1994.

He appealed claiming he had waited eight years for the case to be concluded and that there was not enough evidence for him to be found guilty in the first place.

In handing down judgment, Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, said that unlike the Magistrates' Court, the court had the advantage of a reviewing a pre-sentencing report compiled by Mr Mercieca's probation officer.

The report said Mr Mercieca had made a vast improvement, was functioning as a normal member of society and had suffered considerable physical and psychological damage because he had been an addict for a long time.

The report went on to say that a specific drug rehabilitation programme had been created to cater for Mr Mercieca. He was attending this programme and was doing well.

Taking this fact into consideration, the court revoked the previous judgment and handed down a one-year jail term suspended for four years while ordering Mr Mercieca to keep in contact with his probation officer and to appear every six months in court together with the officer.