Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia’s former driver, Paul Sheehan, was yesterday remanded in custody after denying a charge of attempted murder over last week’s shooting incident in Gżira.
The 40-year-old police constable allegedly shot at a car being driven by Stephen Smith in Edgar Bonnici Street on November 19, after the Scotsman crashed into the ministerial car as it was parked in Nicholas Cotoner Street.
Magistrate Giovanni Grixti denied Mr Sheehan’s request for bail, because Mr Smith has still to testify.
Soon after the sitting ended yesterday evening, Mr Sheehan complained of chest pain and was taken to hospital for a check-up. He had complained of similar pain on Monday following a commotion at his mother’s Gżira home as inquiring Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras was conducting an on-site visit.
He was released from hospital the following day, when the magistrate signed an arrest warrant. Mr Sheehan was arrested first thing yesterday morning after investigators felt that the accounts given to them by Mr Smith and an eyewitness did not tally with his version of events, Police Inspector Saviour Baldacchino told the court.
Sheehan pleading not guilty to charges
Apart from attempted homicide, the constable, who has since been suspended, was accused of intimidating Mr Smith with a weapon, voluntarily damaging Mr Smith’s car, being in possession of a firearm during the commission of an offence, discharging a firearm in a public place, causing a disturbance at night, breaching the peace, exceeding the limits of his authority and committing a crime that he was duty-bound to prevent. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In an unusual procedural move, Mr Sheehan’s defence counsel Edward Gatt asked for the court’s permission to question the prosecuting officers under oath.
Magistrate Grixti wanted to know what the questions were about. Dr Gatt explained that he wanted the prosecution to explain, among other things, why it took them a week to arrest and arraign his client and why his client’s mobile phone had not been seized by the police, as typically occurs in cases of alleged attempted murder.
“I don’t want the decision on bail to be taken just because the court has a typewritten A4 paper [containing the charges] in front of it. As everybody knows, my client is contending that he has become a political football. The court must know what led to his arrest,” Dr Gatt said.
Dr Gatt suggested that there were ulterior motives behind the issue of the charges. Because his request to hear the prosecution came before he had filed an official request for bail, the court turned it down as it was “not procedurally admissible”. But the court upheld the request after the lawyer formally asked for bail.
Taking the witness stand, CID Inspector Baldacchino said Mr Sheehan’s version did not conform with what the police found in their investigation, prompting the arrest yesterday morning.
Dr Gatt insisted there was no evidence his client intended to kill Mr Smith, but Police Superintendent Alexandra Mamo, who led the prosecution, insisted there was enough evidence to back the charge.
Mr Sheehan released a statement to the police but certain details, including about the firearm, were not clear to investigators so they sought an arrest warrant.
When pressed by the magistrate, the prosecution admitted they had a recorded telephone call between Mr Sheehan and the 112 police control room in which he asked for assistance. This call, they said, justified the attempted murder charge.
In view of the seriousness of the case and the fact that Mr Smith still needed to testify under oath, Magistrate Grixti denied bail.
Inquiry report
The board of inquiry’s report into allegations of a cover-up over the shooting incident will be published as soon as it is done, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
Interviewed on TVM, he said debate on the Opposition’s motion of no-confidence in the Home Affairs Minister would wait until he received the report. The board of retired judges was given 15 days to finish the inquiry.