A career criminal found himself back in court today charged with stealing €4,000 from an apartment in Xemxija.

Silvio Pace, 48, was previously jailed for 20 years for his part in a Paola explosion, which killed a mother and her baby son in 1992.

He pleaded not guilty earlier today to theft and property damage at the Xemxija apartment, which is alleged to have taken place early yesterday morning. Mr Pace, who lives in Ħamrun, is also charged with relapsing.

The prosecution, led by Inspector Nicholas Vella, objected to Mr Pace’s release from arrest as several civilian witnesses, all clergymen, had yet to testify.

Defence lawyer Emanuel Bianco said the accused had been scheduled to attend his grandson’s baptism later today, and that he was the sole caregiver for his elderly mother. He also argued that despite his “chequered past”, Mr Pace was now on the right path, and placing him back in a prison environment would only create greater problems.

The court rejected the defence’s request and ordered that Mr Pace be kept under arrest, but granted him permission to attend his grandson’s baptism under escort.

In 1992, Mr Pace and another two men were found guilty of causing the death of 24-year-old Yvette Bonnici and her son Sean, when the block of flats they lived in collapsed after an explosion.

The explosion, which rattled Paola's main square at about 3.35am, demolished the block which included two apartments, one of them where the woman, her husband and their son were sleeping, the Malta Labour Party club, the Catholic Bookshop and the Oxford Photo Studio.

The explosion had been commissioned by the owner of the photo studio, who wanted to destroy his own shop to get insurance money.

The three men were originally sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later reduced to 20 years on appeal.

Since his release, Mr Pace has been convicted of several other offences and was placed under a three-year probation order last December after pleading guilty to various charges of aggravated theft from the Labour Party Club in Sannat and the owner of a field in Kerċem.