Man saved by gun that didn't go off

A man who tried to shoot another in Paceville but the gun luckily malfunctioned was yesterday jailed for three years.

The incident happened during a fight between Steve Spiteri, the accused, and Ronald Spiteri on October 10, 2004 after the latter passed comments about the formers girlfriend, the court heard.

They first started swearing at each other but at one point the accused pulled a .38 calibre revolver from his trousers and, despite his girlfriend's attempt to stop him, hit the victim, the girl's former boyfriend, on the head with the butt of his Smith and Wes-son. Holding the revolver by the barrel, the accused repeatedly struck his victim in the face and then turned the wea-pon around and pointed it at him.

At that point, a police officer who was just metres away noticed that the fight was about take a dramatic turn for the worse and intervened. He tried to restrain the man but the accused still managed to pull the trigger.

Luckily, the gun, which had four live bullets in it, did not go off because it malfunctioned.

Police reinforcements arrived and the weapon was confiscated in a struggle.

The officer who first intervened, PC Christopher De Brincat, testified that the accused threatened he would kill him and all his colleagues. He warned he would track them even if he were to spend 20 years in jail.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera found Mr Spiteri guilty of attempted murder, threatening the police, using the gun in a crime, disobeying orders, seriously injuring the victim, possessing a gun without a licence, threatening an officer in hospital and relapsing.

The magistrate condemned any attack on police officers, especially in this particular incident where they were trying to protect citizens and ended up being assaulted and insulted over something so trivial.

She also noted that the acc-used had several previous convictions ranging from theft and injuring people to disobeying the police.

Taking into consideration the severity of the crime, she jailed him for three years.