A prison inmate who had his jail term extended by nine months because of an incident with the guards, has had the term reduced again because he seems to have turned his life around.

Jean Claude Cassar, 39, got into an argument with two police officers, Constable Cedric Mifsud and Sergeant Wistin Micallef at the prison on June 16, 2006 and threatened them. He challenged them to a fight by saying "come on hit me, so I can seriously hurt you".

In court Mr Cassar claimed that he had been put in solitary confinement for 24 hours following this incident and therefore he could not be punished twice for the same crime.

Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi said that there was no evidence to prove that he was already punished but rather he was punished for a separate incident when placed into solitary confinement.

The judge said that the jail term should be altered  not because the magistrate had made a mistake, but to help Mr Cassar on his way to leading a normal life.
He noted that Mr Cassar's criminal record was not good but he was subjected to particular circumstances in his childhood that had made him the man he was today.

At this point in his life he was nearing the end of a jail term and was working and returning to prison everyday, which showed that he had started his journey into reintegration into society.

The nine month jail term was therefore reduced to three months.