A magistrate this morning threw out a libel suit filed against weekly newspaper Il-Mument by the wife and children of murder victim Paul Degabriele, Is-Suldat, over an article that described him as a dangerous criminal.
Magistrate Francesco Depasquale said this description was justified in the context of Mr Degabriele's criminal record, with its "never ending" list of offences and convictions from when he was still 15 years old.
Anna Maria, Nadeah and Ryan Degabriele complained that the front page article of Il-Mument on June 16, 2013, two weeks after he was shot dead, had implicated him in high-profile murders over the past months. The suit was filed against the paper’s editor, Roderick Agius.
Mr Degabriele, 48, of Fgura, was gunned down at about 11am outside Sammy’s Bar in Belt il-Ħazna Road, Marsa, on May 31 that year by an unknown man who escaped in a stolen white Nissan Vannette which was driven by an accomplice.
Mr Degabriele had just stepped out of the bar and was sitting in his Toyota pickup when he was shot three times in the head and twice in his upper body. A semi-automatic 9mm pistol was used, according to the police.
In October 2012, Mr Degabriele had reported to the police that a bomb had been placed under the Toyota. The device was safely detonated by ordnance experts.
Two months later he was among those questioned about the murder of Joseph Cutajar, known as Il-Lion, who was found dead in his car in Mosta a few hours after Josef Grech, 41, from Balzan, Il-Yo Yo, had been fatally shot in the head in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.
Mr Degabriele had been released without being charged.
The magistrate noted how although Mr Degabriele's wife and children told the court that he had never had any problems with justice and had never been to court except for once when he was fined €400, his criminal record filed by the police during the libel case showed otherwise.
The record contained a "never-ending" list of convictions on crimes ranging from breaching the peace with his participation in various fights to theft of cars and jewellery. He was convicted of crimes in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, 2002 and 2006.
In 2001 he was convicted of having committed a string of thefts in 1984 when he was just 17 years old. He stole €87,000 worth of gold and silver items from jewellery shops in Valletta, Sliema and Birkirkara and €7,000 in cash and items from a self-service in Sliema. He had also been convicted of having stolen three cars and numerous car stereos from various cars parked in Sliema, San Gwann and Msida.
The court also noted that when he was murdered, he was due to be charged in court over the theft of a refrigerated van full of frozen meats inside in January 2005.
"With a criminal record like this one, the court finds it incredulous how the family could attempt to object to a description of Mr Degabriele as a dangerous criminal... And their claims on his past were also untrue, if not misleading, when seen in the context of the never-ending list of convictions and crime," the magistrate said.
The court also commented on the story published on the newspaper, describing it as the result of "meticulous research" on a series of crimes and murders "that remained unsolved through no fault of the police but because of the omerata that reigns in the circle of organised crime in which Mr Degabriele was well-known."