Absence of police leads to case dismissal

A man charged with disobeying police orders was acquitted after the officers who were meant to testify as the prosecution's main witnesses missed the court sitting because they were distributing voting documents.

Magistrate Silvio Meli, who was presiding over the St Julians district sitting, said it was unacceptable that the prosecution's main witnesses failed to turn up at a court sitting to do some other job.

He was presiding over a case against Jeremy Bonello, 33, the owner of a service station in St Andrew's, who was charged with failing to obey two officers who were investigating a report filed by a customer.

Two officers turned up at the service station but Mr Bonello failed to cooperate, they claimed. No details on what the report consisted of were revealed in court.

During the district sitting, the two officers were called up to testify but did not appear. When Magistrate Meli asked Police Inspector Trevor Micallef where they were, he said they were handing out votes.

The Magistrate remarked that this was unacceptable and that court work should come before everything else - so he dismissed the case.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti appeared for Mr Bonello.