Until recently, the longest term of an inmate in Maltese prisons since 1800 was that of John Naylor of the 88th Regiment of Foot, The Connought Rangers, who was imprisoned for 26 years and 360 days.

On March 6, 1843, William Martin, a doctor and inspector general of the Royal Navy hospital, was killed when he was boarding a boat in Dockyard Creek. Martin had just left Sir John Lewis when a rifle shot penetrated his torso and tore his right lung and part of his intestine. Fatally wounded, he fell into the sea, and although he was brought to shore soon afterwards, he died about 40 minutes later.

The shot had been fired by Irish private Naylor, who was 30 at the time. Earlier that morning, during the routine inspection, Naylor was reported by a sergeant of the same regiment for insubordination.

The sergeant’s reprimand had hurt Naylor’s feelings and deeply disturbed him. Indeed he was also heard telling some soldiers he had been humiliated by the sergeant and that he wanted to kill him.

This strange behaviour continued in the barrack’s mess, and when he left he carried a rifle with him and proceeded to the quay. When Naylor spotted Martin, the red mist descended and he shot him, but there was no doubt he intended to shoot the sergeant not the doctor.

When Naylor was arrested, he offered no resistance and he was later charged with wilful homicide. During his detention prior to the trial, the accused was examined by medical experts appointed by the prosecution who certified that the accused was responsible for the act.

However, during the trial on April 3, 1843, the defence counsel brought a medical expert who testified that Naylor was a psychopath. It was also said that Naylor did not know whom he had shot until his arrest.

In his address to the jury, Sir Ignazio Gavino Bonavia, the presiding judge, reminded the jurors that they ought to know that a man is presumed to be sane, until the contrary be proved to the satisfaction of the court.

Naylor was found guilty with a six to one verdict (at that time the jury consisted of seven jurors) and he was sentenced to life imprisonment and chained with leg irons. He was released and allowed to return to Ireland by a warrant of the Governor of Malta, Sir Patrick Grant, on March 1, 1870, after spending 27 years in Valletta Great Prison and later at Corradino prison.

The offender, who already committed four murders, is a serious menace to Maltese society and this surely necessitates that he be given a substantially long jail term- Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono

Naylor’s term in prison was lately surpassed by that of Mohsen Mosbah Bin Brahim and Ben Ali Wahid Ben Hassine, two Tunisians who have been imprisoned since February 20, 1988. After about four years in preventive custody the two Tunisians were each given a life sentence after pleading guilty to killing four men, namely, Peter James Rhead at Ta’ Xbiex on February 12, 1988, George Cucciardi on the same night, Alfred Darmanin and Frenchman Levarlet Guillaume Andrè Michel. The last two murders were committed on February 18, 1988.

On March 29, 2000, Mosbah escaped from prison and after stealing a car in Paola he broke into an apartment. On May 22, 2006, he pleaded guilty in the criminal court to the crime, to the possession of a weapon and resisting arrest when he was being taken in police custody.

Originally, Mosbah had also been charged with escaping from prison but this charge was dropped after a Constitutional Court ruled that his fundamental rights had been breached because he had already been tried and punished for the escape by the prison’s disciplinary board.

Before passing a six-year prison sentence, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said: “This is a manifest case where the offender, who already committed four murders apart from other serious offences, and who already escaped from jail three times, is a serious menace to Maltese society and this surely necessitates that he be given a substantially long jail term.”

Mosbah is not the only prisoner with a life sentence and a concurrent prison sentence. In 2010, Silvio Mangion was jailed for life after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Rożina Zammit, 54, who was stabbed in her home in Safi in 1984.

Prior to this sentence, Mangion had received a 21-year imprisonment for the murder of Frenċ Cassar and the attempted murder of the victim’s sister on August 18, 1998. Moreover, Mangion has been accused of stabbing to death Maria Stella Magrin at her home in Cospicua on October 30, 1986, and the case is still sub-judice.

Andy Calleja is another inmate sentenced to life imprisonment with a concurrent prison sentence. In June 2004 Calleja was jailed for life after admitting in the Criminal Court to murdering Police Constable Roger Debattista. In October 2014 and November 2014, Calleja received further prison sentences after admitting in court to being in possession of drugs.

In 1971, Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty from the Criminal Code. Before the promulgation of the Criminal Code in 1854, the death penalty or life sentences were also given for those found guilty of grievous bodily harm or theft aggravated by violence.

After the 1971 Criminal Code amendments, imprisonment for life became the maximum sentence that can be imposed by the Criminal Court on anyone who, after a trial, is found guilty of wilful homicide irrespective of the number of victims mentioned in the bill of indictment.

In some countries two or more consecutive life sentences may be given in one trial for multiple murders.

The 1971 reform also included the court’s recommendation on passing the sentence of imprisonment for life. Section 493 of the Criminal Code states: “After sentencing any person to imprisonment for life, the court may recommend in writing to the Prime Minister within 24 hours the minimum period which in its view should elapse before the prisoner is released from prison. Such recommendation shall be made available to the person sentenced, and a copy thereof shall be kept by the registrar.”

Moreover, “it shall be lawful for any judge, who sat in a trial, to recommend to the President of Malta, for pardon or mitigation of punishment any person sentenced by making for this purpose a report in writing stating the reason for such recommendation”.

Since the abolition of the death penalty, 18 men and one woman were given a life sentence after found guilty by a jury or pleaded guilty to wilful homicide

Furthermore, “where at any time before the constitution of the jury the accused declares himself guilty and for the fact admitted by the accused there is established the punishment of imprisonment for life, the court may, instead of the said punishment, impose the punishment of imprisonment for a term from 18 to 30 years. It shall be lawful for the court to award a sentence of imprisonment for a term of not less than 12 years in lieu of the punishment of imprisonment for life if, in establishing a fact involving the latter punishment, the jury shall not have been unanimous”.

Since the abolition of the death penalty, 18 men and one woman were given a life sentence after found guilty by a jury or pleaded guilty to wilful homicide. However, the Court of Criminal Appeal has changed the life sentence in three cases.

Between 1800 and 1837 all those found guilty of wilful homicide were sentenced to death. However, some death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The first prisoners who benefited from this prerogative of mercy were Salvu Grech and Ġanni Magri in 1807.

The previous year, Grech and Magri, together with Giovanni Scerri and Ġużeppi Camilleri, murdered a priest during a robbery in Naxxar. Scerri and Camilleri were executed and Grech and Magri were told they had been reprieved a few minutes before their scheduled execution. Since 1800, 25 convicts had their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

In May 1838 Angelo Farrugia was given a life sentence after he was found guilty of killing Joseph Barbara of Żejtun. Farrugia was released in 1858 after a special amnesty; however, he failed to reform himself. In June 1860 Farrugia was hanged for killing a police constable.

The youngest person ever sentenced to life in prison since 1800 was Toni Cutajar. In 1838, at the age of 12, he was caught stealing from the sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception in Qala. When he was released after nine years he went to Turkey, and in 1848 he was extradited to Malta for killing Paolo Stella, a Maltese emigrant. Cutajar received another life sentence for this crime; however, in August 1867 he escaped from Corradino prison and managed to leave the island. To date Cutajar is the only Maltese convict who received two separate life sentences.

Until three decades ago, thanks to the 17 amnesties granted between 1814 and 1987, together with remissions and the several pardons, prisoners with life sentences have obtained early release after a reduction of their prison sentence. The amnesty given after the constitutional changes in January 1987 not only gave a month deduction from each year of the prison sentence, but those imprisoned for life had their sentence reduced to 20 years.

Certain pardons by governors of Malta were more gracious than the amnesties. In June 1937, Governor Sir Charles Bonham-Carter commuted Karmena Abdilla’s death penalty to life imprisonment, and four years later she was paroled and released from Corradino prison.

In March 1937, the woman was found guilty of inciting her 15-year-old son to kill Ġużeppi Debattista in Ħamrun. The boy fired at Debattista at point-blank range, and although the bullet was removed during an operation, Debattista died the following day.

The number of prisoners serving life sentence in Corradino prison who died in prison, whether actually in prison or in hospital, is seven. Franġisku Farrugia, aged 37, sentenced for life in 1894, died in 1896 due to nervous exhaustion. His prison term was the shortest one since 1850.

The longest term of such imprisonment was that of Joseph Harrington, who died on September 2, 2014. Harrington was imprisoned for life after he was found guilty of murdering Sylvia King in April 1993. He had been held in preventive custody and later imprisoned at Corradino for 21 years and four months.

Harrington’s prison term surpassed that of Salvu Vella, who died while being treated in Mount Carmel Hospital in October 1911, aged 65. Vella was being treated for his psychiatric problems. In 1894 he was sentenced for life for a murder he committed in August 1891.