A man condemned to three months imprisonment by a magistrate's court after breaching bail conditions, was today conditionally discharged by a court of appeal.

Eugene Galea, 57, from Lija, who had been granted bail when facing criminal proceedings for allegedly harassing Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Roderick Galdes, was condemned to a jail term of three months after being charged with having breached bail conditions.

The accused had approached Inspector Ramon Mercieca, one of the witnesses summoned to testify in the proceedings against him. The magistrate's court had heard that Mr Galea had sent a Facebook message to the witness on the eve of the day when the latter was due to take the witness stand.

READ: Galdes forgives man who harassed him

However, the court of appeal observed that the accused had claimed to have sent the Facebook message since he considered the police inspector to be an investigating officer rather than a witness in the proceedings.

The accused had also failed to turn up for one of the hearings and had been fined €100 for contempt of court by the magistrate who had ordered him to appear under a warrant of arrest. The accused had subsequently refused to obey the police when these went to arrest him.

The court of appeal, presided by judge David Scicluna, observed that the accused had already been convicted for breaching one of the bail conditions, namely that of appearing for all court sittings, and had been fined by the magistrate's court.

The court observed that the accused had a relatively clean criminal record sheet and had also spent 10 days under preventive arrest.

The court therefore revoked the judgment by acquitting the accused of the charge of having failed appear before the magistrate's court and converting the sentence to a conditional discharge of 6 months.