A man serving a six-year jail term for conspiring to murder, yesterday claimed his conviction was “unsafe and unsatisfactory” as it was based on a police statement that was released without him being given access to a lawyer.

Carmel Vella, 35, from San Ġwann, had incriminated himself when he revealed all the details of a plan to murder Patricia Attard, 55, in January 2004 and spilled the beans on another man, Josef Grech, the man convicted of the murder.

The presiding judge at the time, Joseph Galea Debono, had remarked upon sentencing that had Mr Vella not incriminated himself during the magisterial inquiry, the police would have had no evidence against him or Mr Grech.

During the trial, the court heard how Mr Vella and Mr Grech had lured Ms Attard to L-Aħrax in Mellieħa so they could then push her off a cliff. The plan fell through when the woman refused to go near the edge.

She was found shot dead in her mini-van at Ta’ Qali two months later, on Valentine’s Day.

In an application to the Criminal Court of Appeal, Mr Vella said that given the recent declarations by the Constitutional Court that police statements taken without the presence of a lawyer were in breach of human rights, his case was unsafe and unsatisfactory and he should be given a remedy.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Mr Vella.