A 44-year-old man is seeking a presidential pardon after ending up behind bars due to a judicial technicality.

Gaetano Gatt was sentenced to two months imprisonment by a Court of Appeals on Thursday for not paying his estranged wife child support.

According to law, if the money owed is paid in the interim, the prison sentence may be converted to a fine. However, the rule of law also states that, once a judgment is delivered in open court, that judgment cannot be rescinded.

A few seconds after Madam Justice Edwina Grima read out the sentence, confirming that which had been handed out by a previous court, Mr Gatt informed the court that he had the money on his person. However, since the judgment had already been delivered, he had to be taken to prison.

His ex-wife, Carol, confirmed with this newspaper that Mr Gatt had paid her the €300 she was due.

She explained that she has been separated from Mr Gatt, with whom she has three children, since 2009.

Since two of their children are now adults, Ms Gatt is owed €20 a week in child support for their 12-year-old daughter.

I really hope he behaves himself and that his stint behind bars serves as a wake-up call

“We have already been treading the court floorboards for the past five years.

“He never paid up and still owes me much more, especially after I paid off his €14,000 debts for various things – in fact, we’re due for another court hearing soon.

“Despite the pain he has caused me, I don’t want him to remain behind bars.”

She said that he had told their daughter the week before that he would be paying up. Upon being sentenced, he passed out briefly and wept bitterly, Ms Gatt said.

“I’m so tired of going to court. I really hope he behaves himself and that his stint behind bars serves as a cautionary lesson and a wake-up call.”

Contacted by this newspaper, Mr Gatt’s lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace explained that his client had left it too late to notify him.

“Put bluntly, there was no injustice,” he insisted. “The judge was informed that he had brought the money along with him to pay his estranged wife after she had read out the judgment – and by that point, it was too late.

“A petition for a presidential pardon has since been filed.”