The Attard council has unanimously forgiven Labour councillor John Bonnici for vandalising the village church parvis, saying this was now “case closed”.

Mr Bonnici, 64, who had been convicted of the incident where he damaged a number of balustrades in a fit of rage and for which he was given a suspended jail term, has apologised to the council.

Mr Bonnici successfully contested last week’s round of local elections and was re-elected with 420 first count votes, the highest number won by candidates on his party’s ticket.

“During a council meeting, Mr Bonnici apologised and we felt that .since he admitted in court and got the punishment he deserved, there was no reason why not to accept the apology and prolong the matter. We accepted it unanimously and the case is now closed,” mayor Stefan Cordina, who was also reconfirmed in his position, told The Times .

Mr Bonnici was handed a suspended jail term in September 2010 after pleading guilty to vandalising the balustrades of the Attard parish church parvis on July 16, 2009.

The court had heard that Mr Bonnici acted in a fit of rage after promising certain constituents he would remove them.

Following his conviction, Mr Bonnici had resigned from the Labour Party but remained on the council as an “independent” councillor. He eventually re­joined the party.

Prior to last Saturday’s election, the PL defended his candidature, saying that since Mr Bonnici had “shouldered res­ponsibility” for his actions the party believed he should not be “barred” from contesting the election on its behalf.