Mosta mayor Shirley Farrugia has urged police to release CCTV footage of the animal killer, saying there were at least six cameras that could have captured the latest case from different angles.
“I have repeatedly called upon Police Commissioner [Peter Paul Zammit] to release any available footage of the perpetrator but I’ve never received any reply,” Dr Farrugia told Times of Malta.
She said she had been in regular contact with the police since 2012 and passed on any information supplied by residents about the spate of animal cruelty cases in the locality.
The last time the police contacted, her, Dr Farrugia added, was when Assistant Police Commissioner Martin Sammut asked her if she knew who had leaked CCTV footage from one of the cameras to the media. She said she did not know.
In September, Dr Farrugia and local council staff were invited by the police to view footage taken on September 16, when eight paws and a tail were found nailed to two crosses hanging from the statue of St Mary in Britannia Square. However, the footage was out of focus and grainy and it was near to impossible to identify the person that appeared.
A person who had spotted the perpetrator in September, Dr Farrugia said, was convinced it was the same person involved in the latest case. A cat and a dog were found dead, hanging to a cross near Mosta church on Monday.
A tall man featured in both videos, she noted.
“I have no jurisdiction to tell people what to do. However, I urge anyone with any footage or information to come forward. The police have been working very hard but perhaps it’s time to try a new method seeing that the perpetrator continues to defy us all.
“My argument has always been that releasing the footage to the public would mean that there would be thousands of pairs of eyes scrutinising it as opposed to a select few,” Dr Farrugia said.
With reference to CCTV footage that appeared online over the past days, Karim Cassar, from Alberta Group, said it was almost impossible to clean it up electronically to identify the perpetrator.
The camera was not focused correctly, and the bal-ance between daytime and night-time viewing was not pro-perly aligned, he pointed out, adding that CCTV cameras required regular maintenance.