A uniformed man leaving the Sliema police station 25 minutes before the shooting incident report was deleted had a similar stature to that of a sergeant who stands charged with the deletion, the court heard yesterday.

Three police officials who investigated 31-year-old police sergeant Leeroy Balzan and the deletion of the first four paragraphs of the original report involving a former minister’s driver confirmed that the uniformed police officer seen in CCTV footage leaving the station on November 22 at 1.24pm resembled Mr Balzan.

They said that although his face could not be seen because the person was captured from behind, the stature and gait of the person in the footage and in the still images exhibited in court as evidence was similar to that of Mr Balzan.

They were testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Balzan, who is charged with deleting the first four paragraphs of the police incident report on the November 19 incident surrounding police constable Paul Sheehan, former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia’s driver.

Mr Balzan, of Sliema, stands charged with crimes revolving around computer misuse. More specifically, he is accused of preventing the input of data, changing, deleting or adding official data, revealing a password to give access to official files to unauthorised people, committing crimes that were damaging to a government function, doing something to prejudice his superior and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.

Although his face could not be seen, the stature and gait of the person in the footage and in the still images was similar to that of Mr Balzan

The crimes are alleged to have taken place on November 22 between 1pm and 2pm at the Sliema police station.

At the end of yesterday’s sitting, which lasted almost four hours, Mr Balzan was granted bail against a deposit of €2,000 and a €6,000 personal guarantee. He was also ordered to sign the Msida police station bail book once a week.

Superintendent Alexandra Mamo, sergeant major Alfred Abela and police constable Luke Busuttil all confirmed, under cross examination, that the stature of the person in the still images resembled that of Mr Balzan, who was walking away from the station in the direction of his house some metres down the road.

Before Magistrate Doreen Clarke, court expert Martin Bajada explained that Mr Balzan accessed the National Police System at 1.17pm and opened the shooting incident police report 18 seconds later.

Dr Bajada said he could not ascertain when the deletion took place because after deleting, the user had to click an update button. In this case, the report with the first four paragraphs was deleted almost 33 minutes later.

He confirmed that the deletion took place when Mr Balzan, with his username and password, was logged into the system.

Dr Bajada explained that since the police system had an automatic logout after 20 minutes of inactivity, someone must have been doing something on the system at the time. Dr Bajada said the image was too blurred to conclude whether it was Mr Balzan but suggested that the court should organise a parade whereby all the people who were working at the station that day would be asked to walk past the security camera.

Police inspector Sandro Camilleri, who is prosecuting, said Mr Balzan persistently denied deleting parts of the report. He also admitted that he might not have logged out of the system before he left work.

Dr Camilleri said investigations had revealed that Mr Balzan had received a call from the police communications office to access the report to check whether it had been updated with names of detainees.

Mr Balzan told investigators that he had logged on and highlighted parts of the report to be able to read it better but vehemently denied deleting anything.

Dr Camilleri said he had also questioned another police officer PC Luke Busuttil who happened to be inside the police station at the time of the deletion. He said Constable Busuttil was with a man at the time, taking a report related to damage to a garage door.

Mr Busuttil testified that Mr Balzan was still inside the police station when he finished compiling this report. Although he insisted it was after 1.30pm, he could not specify the time at which he finished taking the report.

The court heard from several witnesses, including Superintendent Mamo, that it was “a statement of fact” that police officers gave their username and password to other police officers who did not have login details to access the system.

Dr Bajada, the IT expert, said that out of the 24 police officers stationed in the sixth police district, only two officers had no login details.

Several witnesses described Mr Balzan as a hardworking officer who often remained at work to complete a job at hand.

The case will continue at the end of December.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for Leeroy Balzan.

Timeline

13.17.02pm: PS Balzan logs into police system.

13.17.20pm: PS Balzan accessed shooting incident report.

13.24.33pm: CCTV captures uniformed man resembling PS Balzan leaving Sliema police station.

1.49.53pm: Report with first four paragraphs deleted updated on police system.