A hunter was acquitted of shooting and killing a protected bird, collecting dead birds and hunting without a licence.

Alvin Caruana, 22, from Żurrieq, was acquitted after Magistrate Anthony Vella noted there was insufficient evidence.

Birdlife Malta said in a statement later that the incident had been witnessed and reported to the police in September last year by Bob Elliot and Ian Thomson, heads of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Investigation Unit in the UK and Scotland. They said that they had also testified in court about it.

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