A man was remanded in custody today after pleading not guilty to dangerous driving during an 11-mile car chase across most of the island last week.

A traffic policeman attempted to stop Andre' Galea, 30, from Paola, after he made an illegal U-turn in Gudja, Magistrate Charmaine Galea heard.

Inspector Sergio Pisani explained how Mr Galea had been at a bar drinking since 9am before he got into his Vauxhall Astra and drove off around 5.15pm. A traffic policeman attempted to stop him but he refused to stop, telling the officer he did not care about him.

A chase ensued, with the traffic police sergeant radioing for assistance. Several traffic section motorcycles and Rapid Intervention Unit cars joined the chase covering a total of 11 miles.

Apart from a long list of traffic contraventions, Mr Galea was also charged with the unlawful possession of a stun gun found inside his car during a search, as well as with slightly injuring a police officer.

Inspector Pisani said Mr Galea attempted to knock the officer off his bike on at least three occasions.

This charge irked defence lawyers Giannella de Marco and Gianluca Caruana Curran who complained that the certification for slight injuries issued by a doctor read: "slight emotional stress due to car chase". The lawyers said this did not fall within the parameters of slight injuries.

They requested bail for their client, explaining he had already been under police bail after being admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital to receive treatment for his depression following the death of his mother.

Magistrate Galea turned down the request but recommended that Mr Galea be held in preventive custody at the Mount Carmel Hospital Forensic Section, where he can continue receiving treatment.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.