A man convicted of the involuntary homicide of an eight-month-old baby in August 1992 during a traffic accident appeared in court today charged with assaulting three police officers who stopped him after he stuck his middle finger out at them.
Joseph Camilleri, a 41-year-old unemployed man from San Gwann, was charged with assaulting and resisting two police constables and a police sergeant, slightly injuring the sergeant, swearing in public, breaching the peace, disobeying police orders, preventing the officers from carrying out their duties and refusing to give them his details.
Police Inspector Sergio Pisani told Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras that the police tried to stop Mr Camilleri in Vjar ir-Rihan after he made an offensive gesture at them. He disobeyed their orders but but later stopped outside his residence in Triq Vincenzo Hyzler, where he allegedly assaulted the officers.
Although at first he refused to take a breathalyser test, he eventually took it and tested negative to alcohol, the court heard.
The inspector objected to the granting of bail saying the accused did not offer the necessary guarantees according to law.
But defence counsel Giannella de Marco contradicted this, saying the last serious case her client had was over the 1992 fatal traffic accident that was only concluded last year due to several court delays.
After noting how the only witnesses in the case were police officers, Magistrate Galea Sciberras granted the man bail against a €500 deposit and a €5,000 personal guarantee.
In April last year, Magistrate Galea Sciberras fined Mr Camilleri €4,000 and banned him from driving for five months after finding him guilty of causing the death of a toddler.
The case goes back to August 7, 1992, when Mr Camilleri, at the time 18 years old, was towing a Ford Anglia that was being manoeuvered by his younger brother, then 13.
At one point, the tow rope got entangled and the Anglia veered onto the oncoming lane, crashing head-on with a Skoda station wagon driven by Anthony Zammit, who was with his wife Rita.
Eight-month-old twins Lynn and Greta were sitting in child seats alongside their three-year-old sister Janice and 12-year-old cousin Erica.
All the occupants were injured. In the case of baby Greta, the whiplash she suffered was so severe that she died. The accident happened on Tal-Balal Road, Naxxar.
Witnesses said that in the immediate aftermath, Mr Zammit got out of the car and started shouting and crying, while his wife lay unconscious in the car.
When testifying in November 1993, Ms Zammit said that the family had been on the way to Armier, driving through Tal-Balal Road, when all of the sudden she saw a car approaching and it hit them. She lunged forward, hit the windscreen and lost consciousness.