Convicted sergeant back on beat

The police sergeant convicted of assaulting a French woman last year was reinstated less than two months after an appeal court handed down a suspended jail term, The Sunday Times has learnt.

Sgt David Sant was catapulted into the limelight after video footage of him kneeing the 56-year-old woman in the chest appeared in the media.

The incident, which took place on May 10, 2007, had initially gone unreported. But after the story broke, he was charged and received a four-month prison sentence on July 10 after being found guilty of slightly injuring the woman.

Following an appeal in October last year, the jail term was suspended for a year. Yet two months later he resumed his career with the police force and was assigned regular duties.

When contacted, the police media relations unit was initially coy about the issue. However, following further questions, a spokesman said the decision regarding the sergeant's resumption of duty came from the Public Service Commission.

Sgt Sant was suspended after being charged with the offence and remained so until the appeal. Once the case was concluded the Police Commissioner followed standard procedure and asked the Public Service Commission for direction.

The police spokesman said: "The Public Service Commission, inter alia, recommended that P. S. Sant's interdiction be lifted."

The spokesman would not confirm what duties Sgt Sant was assigned to, citing as policy the practice not to divulge the postings of individual officers. Nonetheless, The Sunday Times is reliably informed that the sergeant has been on the beat since December and was only recently transferred to a new police station.

Nor would the police say why the officer was not assigned to clerical duties as an alternative, but in both communications pointed out that they had followed the public service procedure.

The Commission, which is responsible for recommending the dismissal of all public service employees, could not be contacted yesterday afternoon, while questions sent via e-mail remained unanswered.

The incident had taken place in broad daylight outside Baystreet, Paceville, in May last year. Sgt Sant had asked the woman to reverse her car in order to help clear a traffic jam that had developed but she refused and started hooting the horn.

There was a language problem between the two as she hooted persistently and the sergeant tried to arrest her. She resisted and scratched him on the arm.

At some point after she scratched him, the sergeant opened the door of her car and she pushed him away. He then raised his left knee towards her neck but she managed to avoid being hit by ducking. As she kept trying to pull the door shut, he jerked his right knee and hit her in the chest. She fell onto the passenger's seat.

In suspending the jail term, Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano, who presided over the appeal, had noted the officer's 20 years of "impeccable service" and the testimony of several officers saying that the incident was totally "out of character" for Sgt Sant.

Nonetheless, he stressed the gravity of the incident and the implications on the reputation of the police force.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com