A woman who hid heroin in her underpants to deliver it to an inmate in 2006 was acquitted because the sachet containing the drug, which the prisoner allegedly swallowed, was never found.

Michelle Bugeja, 46, from Cospicua, was charged with smuggling drugs into prison on November 22, 2006.

She used to visit inmate Mario Buhagiar, a drug addict who had been in jail since 1994 and who often asked for heroin.

On the day in question, correctional officers noticed the woman putting Mr Buhagiar’s hand inside her underpants. The officers rushed into the room where the two were meeting and saw Mr Buhagiar holding something in his hand, which he then swallowed.

When Mr Buhagiar was taken to hospital for tests, doctors found nothing inside his body, leading the Appeals Court to declare that there was no evidence, except for the statements given to the police, that the package correctional officers saw Mr Buhagiar swallowing was in fact heroin.

Mr Justice David Scicluna said he could not understand how the Attorney General, who appealed after Ms Bugeja had been cleared of the charges brought against her by the Magistrates’ Court, was expecting the court to find her guilty of drug trafficking and of supplying heroin to the inmate.

The judge confirmed the judgment of the first court.

However, he upheld the Attorney General’s argument that the statement she had given to the police – in which she admitted delivering drugs to the prisoner – should not have been declared inadmissible even though she had not been given access to a lawyer before her interrogation, a provision that had not been yet in force in 2006.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Ms Bugeja.

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