A police sergeant accused of deleting part of an internal report following the shooting incident involving Paul Sheehan, the driver of former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, has been conditionally discharged by a magistrate's court.
Leeroy Balzan, 31, from Sliema, had pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence and other related offences which occurred on November 22, 2014 between 1 and 2pm at the Sliema Police Station where the officer was on first watch duty.
Before leaving the station, PS Balzan had reportedly disclosed his password to an orderly who was to be the only officer on duty during the half-hour handover period between the first and second watch.
Another sergeant had begun work on the incident report related to the proceedings against Stephen Smith and Paul Sheehan, the two men involved in the shooting episode, while on duty at the Sliema Police Station.
Upon resuming his writing later at the Gżira station, the officer realised that certain parts of the report had been cancelled. He reported the matter to his superiors who took action against PS Balzan.
The court, presided by Magistrate Doreen Clarke, noted that the accused had consistently said that he had accessed the PIRS report after a call from the police's media liaison asking for details of where Stephen Smith and Paul Sheehan were being held and had highlighted parts of it to be able to see them better.
He could not remember whether he had closed the report after the phone call ended but insisted that he had not deleted any part of it.
The court pointed out that the crux of the issue lay in whether the accused had actually been present at the police station when the report was allegedly tampered with.
The only witness present at the time, namely the orderly who had handled the handover period, was not credible when testifying since his version had contained several inconsistencies, the court remarked. Other inconsistencies had been noted in other testimonies given on the matter.
On the basis of inconclusive evidence, the court declared that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The court acquitted Mr Balzan of the more serious charges related to the tampering with the report and found him guilty of having disclosed his password to his orderly who thus gained unauthorised access to official files. It also found him guilty of having committed an offence against government interests, which offence he was duty-bound to prevent.
The court discharged the accused on condition of not committing another offence within one year.
The court noted that the fact that no steps had apparently ever been taken against any members of the police force for sharing passwords – a practice the force used at the time –did not mean that the accused was innocent, but only served to mitigate punishment.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel. Inspector Sandro Camilleri and Jesmond Micallef prosecuted.