Attempted murder charge against Sandro Chetcuti dropped
Sandro Chetcuti
Charges of attempted murder against developer Sandro Chetcuti were dropped by the Attorney General today.
The decision was announced in court during the compilation of evidence against Mr Chetcuti, who had allegedly assaulted the Director-General of the GRTU, Vince Farrugia in the GRTU offices two years ago.
The most serious charge against Mr Chetcuti now is that of attempting to cause serious injury.
The AG's decision follows contrasting evidence earlier in the proceedings on the seriousness of the injuries suffered by Mr Farrugia.
Mr Farrugia's daughter, Marie-Claire, continued to give evidence today. She explained that she is a doctor based in a hospital in Chelsea. Her father had called her from Mater Dei Hospital and she came to Malta a few days later.
She said that she was convinced that her father had suffered sternum injuries but she denied contacting consultant radiologist Anthony Samuel to conduct tests.
Defence counsel Manuel Mallia listed five SMS messages from Dr Farrugia's UK number and Dr Samuel, but Dr Farrugia said she had no recollection of such messages.
Later in her evidence she said she had bumped into Dr Samuel by accident in a bar and she told him she suspected that her father had suffered rib fractures. They agreed that the only way to confirm this was through a bone scan.
Dr Farrugia insisted she did not ask Dr Samuel to conduct the bone scan.
In previous sittings, Drs Mario Scerri and Malcolm Crockford contrasted Dr Samuel's view and denied that there were rib fractures.
Dr Samuel was grilled by the defence in December and had admitted he had briefly dated Dr Farrugia.
Dr Samuel stood by his previous claim that Mr Farrugia suffered fractures and that his eighth to 11th ribs on the right side were separated and dislocated from the point where they join the sternum. The fractures, he said, showed up particularly in the vascular phase of a bone scan and the images produced from this scan were typical of fractures. Dr Mallia asked Dr Samuel if he had in fact inflated the results in favour of Mr Farrugia’s case.
This assertion was vehemently denied by Dr Samuel.
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Witness had dated daughter of attack victim
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28 Comments
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V Mercieca
Apr 23rd 2012, 19:42
@ John Borg
It is interesting reading your comments in various articles.
In my opinion you wear a very dark and stained glasses and this makes it difficult for you to see clearly.
May I suggest that when you write you use your brains not your heart.
John Borg
Apr 23rd 2012, 19:17
Il-laburisti qed jiehdu pjacir li laburist habib ta joseph muscat mhux se jnistab hati t'attentat ta qtit izda jista jinstab hati li ta bis sieq u bil ponn lil wiehed anzjan.
il-lejber ma jinbidlu QATT
Stephen Grech
Apr 23rd 2012, 20:51
Sur Borg,
Hadd mhu qieghed jiehu gost li anzjan qala xebgha.
Haga wahda nixtieq forsi tghini naqra, X'qallu dak l-anzjan qabel ma qala ix-xebgha????.
Issa jekk joghobok, tpoggiex lil-kullhadd f'keffa wahda.
Mr Lawrence Calleja
Apr 23rd 2012, 18:30
Kull min qed jikteb jaf x'qieghed jghid jew?? Nghidu proset lil wiehed li sawwat bis-sieq u bil-ponn persuna anzjana? Dik hi is-serjeta? Min jaf li kieku kien xi qarib taghkom din il-persuna li tigi msawta? Fuq kollox s'issa din il-persuna mhux harget liberata imma imbidlitilha l-akkuza. Xorta baqet dik l-akkuza fejn bniedem fl-aqwa tieghu sawwat b'aggressivita persuna anzjana. Ejja nkunu serji qabel nikkumentaw fil-vojt.
Malcolm Farrugia
Apr 23rd 2012, 16:49
Iz-zejt tielgha f'wicc l'ilma fl'ahhar!
A.F. Busuttil
Apr 23rd 2012, 15:11
Frame up....................
well done Sandro you need an apology from the political wing of the GRTU
Mr Emanuel Farrugia
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:55
Veru pajjiz tal-karnival u tal-hbieb tal-hbieb. L-importanti li f'dan 'l pajjiz m'inhu tal-"Business" tarah jinhabb man-nies professjonisti fit-toroq tal-Belt.
Emanuel Farrugia former Executive Secretary Mtarfa Local Council
John Zammit
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:44
So at last the A.G. dropped the charge of "attempted murder" So now who is going to answer for such mud and who is going to be held responsible for tarnishing Sandro@s name ?
Denis Pace
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:30
Sandro should have apologised and paid for damages incurred....all this could have been avoided!
Colin Camilleri
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:59
It is already time for the GonziPN media to swallow their words and make an official apology to the PL and Sandro! I am sure Sandro will not let this go by for free. I hope he shall use all legal means to clear his name and bring those who are trying to tarnish his and the PL's reputation to justice and make them shoulder the responsibilities for their actions!
Patrick Zammit
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:55
Oh what a circus
Oh what a show...
Joe Grech
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:53
I'm happy for Sandro Chetcuti who's been vindicated.
Peter Bonnici
Apr 23rd 2012, 18:47
How so? He still stands charged with attempting to cause serious injury. Or is that too petty?
Ms Maria Vella
Apr 24th 2012, 17:34
vindicated? i think he is still accused of grevious body harm
Francis Grech
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:48
This is the most profound case of the Maltese criminal laws that ever came out of the Maltese Mickey mouse courts,first of all this person should had never been accused of attempt murder at all but only of GBH secondly if he was not found guilty of the first accusation he should be set free at once,now all the police have to do is to accuse who ever gave false evidence while under oath and persons that tried to prevent the course of justice,If there is any. I wish Sandro all the luck.
j brincat
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:41
And this when we thought we would have a St Vincent day!
(jb)
Joseph Borg
Apr 23rd 2012, 13:03
Well done! First step! Of course it wasnt an attempt of murder-no weapons where ever used or mentioned and it is also clear, 2 specialist against , that no injuries were occured!
vella m
Apr 23rd 2012, 12:36
Remember these films:
Police Academy (film)
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
Police Academy 3: Back in Training
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
and recently they are preparing a new one,Police academy 8,Valletta is calling.
Mark Borg
Apr 23rd 2012, 12:24
And may I ask: what action will be taken against all those who tried (very hard) to derail justice?
twanny borg
Apr 23rd 2012, 11:26
balbuljata ohra fl-investigazzjoni. il-pulizija trid tinvestiga sew qabel ma tressaq nies il-qorti. hemm bzonn ligijiet fejn bniedem li jitressaq il-qorti u jigi liberat l-istat ghandu jhallas l-ispejjes kollha huwa fl-imkien ma' danni ohra u mhux taghddi minn terrur u qiesu ma gara xejn. jekk irid l-istat ifittex personalment lil min ghamel l-allegazzjonijiet huwa. meta ser inkunu veru liberi u demokratici?
Fenech MD
Apr 23rd 2012, 11:01
Oh how nice of Vince (sic!).
francis x caruana
Apr 23rd 2012, 10:57
And the comedy continues. halina vince. you spending too much time with gonzi pn. stop acting.
Denis Pace
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:29
what a ridiculous comment!
Serious bodily harm is on the cards.......
Eddy Privitera
Apr 23rd 2012, 10:43
There goes Vince Farrugia's claim of having been the victim of an attempted murder !
C Mercieca
Apr 23rd 2012, 10:42
alla hares ma jkollokx avukat li jaghmel l-investigazzjoni hu ghaliex li kien ghal pulizija dawn emmnu dak li qalulhom u mhux ghamlu investigazzjoni kif suppost qabel ma jghagglu jakkuzaw persuna b'attentat ta' qtil.
Denis Pace
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:27
those are not the actual facts.
The police did nothing wrong.
It was the AG who changed the charge to one of GBH rather than attempted murder.....
Evidence was inconsistent....NOT their Fault
Victor Vella
Apr 23rd 2012, 10:30
Well done Sandro. Pay attention so that nobody can make cheap marketing.
Denis Pace
Apr 23rd 2012, 14:25
Well done?????
Nothing justifies violence..
What a stupid world of bloggers we live in!
Please choose the reason of your report below: