Man, 21, gets three years jail for hold-up

A 21-year-old man was yesterday jailed for three years after he took part in a hold-up in which a 60-year-old woman, which has since passed away, was hit with a shotgun.

Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca said the hold-up took place at a farmhouse in a place called Tal-Kanuni, limits of Rabat on October 26, 2005. There were no other buildings but the farm house in the area.

Two robbers had entered the house carrying a sawn-off shotgun at about 9 a.m. and attacked Grazia Camilleri and her husband Francesco while a third waited in the getaway car, the officer said.

Lee and Elvin Cortis, the elderly couple’s grandsons, happened to enter the farmhouse and witnessed the brutal attack. They testified that they saw a green Volkswagen Golf with dark tinted glass pull up outside the house and two men enter.

The aggressors took nothing with them and the police found the vehicle with two suspects inside it a short time later in Rabat, the inspector said.

Elvin Cortis identified the accused as one of the three men involved in the incident, saying he was only four steps away from the gate through which the robbers had entered.

He said he saw the fatter of the two aggressors hitting his grandmother with the gun and shouting for money and left her in a pool of blood on the floor. His brother Lee, ran to try and assist his grandmother and the assailants left the house in the getaway car.

Court-appointed psychiatrist Etienne Muscat said that as a result of the assault Mrs Camilleri (who has since passed away) had remained in a state of constant apprehension and was over-vigilant and jumpy.

She often became convinced that the assailants had returned. Her personality had deteriorated so that she was unable to participate even in basic conversation and was constantly telling her husband that she wanted to change house.

In her opinion, Mrs Camilleri was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the assault.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano jailed the accused after considering the overwhelming evidence against him.

The man’s name is not being published because the crime was committed when he was a minor.