Farmer’s attempted murder conviction ‘based on error’

The farmer jailed for 25 years for trying to kill a father and son yesterday filed an appeal claiming that the judge had committed a fatal error in his considerations.

Mariano Grixti, 50, from Żurrieq, was found guilty last week in a trial by Bench of the attempted murder of Joseph and Redeemer Mifsud in an argument over a rubble wall in October, 2005.

Redeemer, who was 14 years old at the time, was hit once while his father, Joseph, was hit three times with gun pellets which entered practically every vital organ of his body.

In the appeal filed yesterday, defence lawyer Joe Mifsud said that Mr Justice Michael Mallia had made an error in his considerations.

The judgement noted that the father had to undergo three operations to save his life. But this was not life-saving surgery because Mr Mifsud was only opened up to get the pellets out of his body, the lawyer maintained.

The pellets were found, removed and the surgery stopped there. The victim was released from hospital a few days later and there was no other situation arising from his wounds that required any further interventions.

The lawyer also submitted that his client had no intention to kill the men but had acted in self-defence.