Senior police officer denies magistrate's claim

Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar yesterday denied part of the testimony Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera gave on Monday when she said he had bought her drinks at a popular restaurant.

"It wasn't me. I don't even know where this restaurant is. I never bought a drink for a magistrate or any other citizen. My life is spent at work, at home and at the beach in Marsascala," he said when contacted.

Columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who is accused of defaming the magistrate in a series of blogs, posted an entry yesterday saying that, in the circumstances, the public expected the police to take action against the magistrate for giving false testimony.

For Mr Cassar, however, this was probably a question of "mistaken identity".

When asked whether the magistrate could have mistaken him for somebody else given that he was such a prominent figure, the officer said that, since the incident happened seven years ago, he gave the magistrate the benefit of the doubt. But, he insisted, he was never involved in such situations.

In her first in a series of blog entries accusing the magistrate of inappropriate behaviour, Ms Caruana Galizia described an episode in which she and the magistrate were at a ladies' lunch when some "sleazy policemen" sent drinks to their table.

"The rest of us wanted to send the drinks back but the magistrate accepted them... "

In her testimony on Monday in the defamation case instituted by the police acting on a complaint by the magistrate, Dr Scerri Herrera said the men at the table were far from sleazy and included Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and an official of the American Embassy.

Ms Caruana Galizia was yesterday questioned by police for allegedly swearing at the magistrate and calling her a liar on her way out of court.

Ms Caruana Galizia denied the claim saying that she said the word liar in private and was not, at the time, even looking at the magistrate on Monday.