Bowdler accused, jailed over heroin

A man who will be tried over charges of supplying a fatal dose of heroin to 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler eight years ago was yesterday jailed after admitting to selling the same drug over the past two months.

David Gatt, 33, received one year and four months and was fined €1,500 after admitting to trafficking heroin, possession of cocaine, committing the crime within 100 metres of a school and relapsing.

During the compilation of evidence in connection with Ms Bowdler’s death, Jason Decelis had pointed the finger at Mr Gatt as the person who had sold her the drugs.

Mr Decelis is serving a 25-year jail term for failing to take Ms Bowdler to hospital on that ill-fated Sunday, May 13, back in 2001.

He had told the court that Mr Gatt had sold the girl a packet of heroin at Mr Gatt’s apartment in Buġibba on the day she died. The two took the drugs there and then left.

When Ms Bowdler started displaying the symptoms of an overdose, Mr Decelis, then 24, called the alleged dealer and was told not to take her to hospital or to the polyclinic as they would both be arrested.

After Ms Bowdler failed to wake up after experiencing the overdose, Mr Decelis and his parents, Conċetta and Carmel, followed Mr Gatt’s instructions not to take her anywhere.

However, the morning after the incident, Mr Gatt told Mr Decelis to take the body to a place called Ras il-Ġebel in the limits of Għajn Tuffieħa.

They dumped the girl in a field near Mġarr, an act which resulted in the whole Decelis family being jailed for over 40 years between them in 2006.

Police Inspector Jesmond Borg prosecuted.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi appeared for Mr Gatt.