Giovanni Caruana boasted of his stunt in court yesterday.

An elderly man urinated in a bucket and left it to ferment in the sun for weeks before dumping it on his neighbour as he walked out of his garage on Tuesday evening, a court heard yesterday.

Giovanni Caruana, 77, from Sliema, pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him.

However, this did not stop him from boasting of his stunt when he appeared before Magistrate Josette Demicoli.

“I did it and I enjoyed doing it,” he said in court. He was reprimanded for his attitude in court on several occasions, not only by the magistrate but also by his lawyer, Joseph Ellis.

Dr Ellis had at first refused to represent him as legal aid, arguing that a man with a flat in Sliema could certainly afford a lawyer.

The incident occurred as Noel Agius was walking out of his garage, which forms part of a block of apartments on Graham Street.

The squabble between the two goes back some two decades when Mr Caruana bought property from Mr Agius’s father which was later served with an enforcement notice.

I did it and I enjoyed doing it

Mr Agius, who was at the receiving end of the shower, told the court that as he emerged from his garage, he saw spit on the ground.

He looked up, saw the accused on the balcony and got showered with what he imagined was water. It was only later that he realised it was not.

“I shower with fresh water every day and I know what fresh water smells like,” he said.

Although at that point he challenged his neighbour to come down, he eventually got on to his motorbike and went straight to the police station to file a report.

Police Inspector Jason Sultana, prosecuting, said that at the police station, Mr Caruana insulted the police, saying they were all “ignorant”.

Testifying in court, the accused said he dumped the contents of the bucket on to his neighbour because Mr Agius had provoked him and challenged him to fight.

“I left a bucket of urine there. I enjoyed smelling it,” he said when asked why he had left it in the sun to ferment.

Mr Caruana has a pending case before Magistrate Carol Peralta in which he is accused of scratching cars belonging to the Agius family. He had been granted bail and ordered not to speak to the family.

Although he was found guilty of breaching this bail condition, Magistrate Demicoli did not revoke his bail or order that he be rearrested. Instead, she placed him on probation for three years. Lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran appeared for the Agius family. The case continues.