The owners of a Swieqi villa are to be charged over the death of a 19-year-old Frenchman that occurred last summer when a badly constructed garden wall collapsed on top of him.

The wall was not secured and, consequently, it collapsed with the slightest movement

Quentin Michel was at a party in the garden of a house he had rented with friends when the tragedy happened.

The magistrate who carried out the inquiry into the incident has ordered the police to take criminal action against the two owners of the villa and the builder of the wall.

The villa, whose garden also has a small swimming pool, is in Josef Kalleja Street.

The wall was five courses high and did not seem to have a function other than aesthetic.

There was nothing holding the bricks together or securing the wall to exposed rocks just behind it, the inquiry found. “The wall was not secured and, consequently, it collapsed with the slightest movement,” Magistrate Giovanni Grixti concluded in his inquiry report seen by The Times.

“Given that the property was being rented out to third parties, the court believes the owners and the builder, or one of them, should he held accountable for the bad workmanship and the collapse of the wall that resulted in the death of Quentin Antoine Marie Michel.”

The accident happened on August 1 last year at about 10.30pm – a mere few hours after Mr Michel landed in Malta to meet 13 of his former high school friends for a holiday. The group of friends had all started university, studying different subjects, and wanted to spend some time together.

According to court experts quoted in the report, Mr Michel arrived in the evening, later than the others. They showed him to his room and he then met them in the garden for a plate of pasta.

After supper he changed into his bathing suit and re-joined the party.

He was standing on a flight of stairs and rested both hands on top of the wall.

The wall started to tilt, he tried to steady it, but the bricks fell onto him, the magistrate heard.

One of the owners was just about to drive off after checking on some electrical fault in the villa.

One of the friends ran out into the road to alert her and she called the ambulance.

The police arrived about 10 minutes later closely followed by the ambulance and Mr Michel was taken to hospital where he was certified dead.

An autopsy showed he died as a result of rib fractures and lacerations to his right lung and main bronchus sustained by the compression of his chest.

Toxicology results showed he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time.

Throughout the document, a number of experts referred to the owner who phoned the ambulance by different names and there was no mention of who the builder was.

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