Bail for alleged stalker of crime gang whistleblower

Romeo Bone, the prisoner who stands charged with stalking PC Mario Portelli, the whistleblower on an alleged crime gang led by lawyer David Gatt, a former police inspector, was this morning granted bail against a personal guarantee of €15,000.

Taking the witness stand, Inspector Joseph Mercieca told the court that on December 3, PC99 Mario Portelli had told the police about serious crimes committed and being planned and had mentioned the involvement of, among others, Dr Gatt, Fabio Psaila and Mr Bone.

Subsequently Dr Gatt and Mr Psaila were charged and PC99 testified.

Inspector Mercieca said that a person told the police on January 12 that Mr Bone was planning to eliminate PC99 and that the plan was imminent. He informed his superiors who told him to obtain an arrest warrant to investigate the case.

The warrant was issued on the following day and Mr Bone was to be held when he went to sign at the Valletta police station.

But he heard on the police radio at 6 p.m. that Mr Bone and another person were in the vicinity of Qrendi, where PC Portelli lived. The police had followed his car and he was stopped at Luqa and taken to the depot.

Inspector Mercieca said he had asked Mr Bone on the number of a vehicle written on a piece of paper and found in his car: an Isuzu JBB 785 Isuzu. When the police checked it out, they found it belonged to Joseph Baldacchino, who had been shot at in December.

During cross examination, Inspector Mercieca said that nothing illegal was found in Mr Bone’s car.

He said when asked by defence counsel Giannella Caruana Curran that PC Portelli had been found guilty of being involved in a fight at St Julians. He also had a maintenance case with his wife.

Giving evidence PC Portelli said he knew Mr Bone through Dr Gatt.

He said the Commissioner of Police called him last January 10, telling him he had information that Mr Bone was planning to kill him.

PC99 said that on January 13, while smoking in the parapett, he saw a vehicle driving slowly and coming up to his house where it almost stopped driving.

There were Mr Bone and someone else he did not know at the time inside the car and both were looking in his direction. He knelt down so that they would not see him.

After they passed his house, they drove normally in the direction of his father's farmhouse where Mr Bone had once been since they had organised a meal around July 2009.

Then, Mr Bone had asked him if Dr Gatt had ever told him anything against him. He said that he would blow Dr Gatt to smithereens if he (Dr Gatt) ever told on him.