Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia speaking on Wednesday night. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia insisted yesterday his former driver, Paul Sheehan, was not his canvasser, in light of fresh information suggesting they had been close for some time.

Dr Mallia had told a press conference after the shooting incident involving Mr Sheehan two weeks ago he had not hand-picked the driver, as is normally done with positions of trust. He said Mr Sheehan was ‘assigned to him’, adding that his name was suggested by the outgoing driver.

However, multiple sources insisted to Times of Malta yesterday that Mr Sheehan, who is from Gżira, the minister’s home district, had canvassed for Dr Mallia.

“Paul was active in Manuel Mallia’s campaign, I am sure of this. I saw him at more than one of Mallia’s events” a Labour supporter from the district told this newspaper yesterday.

Another source said Mr Sheehan even accompanied Dr Mallia during house visits.

I saw him at more than one of Mallia’s events

But in a dry statement yesterday, the Home Affairs Ministry said that “... Paul Sheehan was never in the minister’s campaign team before the last general election. The people who used to accompany Dr Mallia during door-to-door home visits are all known as forming part of the campaign team and Paul Sheehan was never one of them.”

Drivers are usually among the most trusted members of a politician’s staff, particularly because of the need for them to be discreet, therefore there would have been nothing strange had Mr Sheehan been a canvasser. However, in an evident bid to distance himself, Dr Mallia suggested he hardly knew the driver before having him “assigned” to him around June. Much of the political storm surrounding the case now hinges on the veracity of the claims made by the government about it.

Sergeant expected to be arraigned today

According to the official version given so far, Mr Sheehan chased Stephen Morrison Smith after the latter clipped the mirror of the ministry’s parked Mercedes Benz and sped off. At one point, he caught up with Mr Smith, who was driving a Vauxhall Insignia and shot at it twice, hitting its rear left-hand tail light and its roof, in a residential area behind the national pool in Tal Qroqq.

The chase ended in the tunnels underneath the skate park in Msida when Mr Sheehan managed to overtake Mr Smith and block his path.

Two police officers, an inspector and a sergeant from the Msida police station, are under investigation on suspicion of tampering with evidence in this case. The sergeant is expected to be arraigned today.

The inspector, who is close to Mr Sheehan, was placed on police bail and forced to go on leave on Wednesday after being interrogated about suspected involvement in the disappearance of bullet casings from the site of the incident two weeks ago.

He is also suspected to have approached two witnesses, a mother and her daughter, who filmed the incident and asked them for the footage. The women have been unable to make a positive identification and, in a police line-up, picked up both him and another individual who has nothing to do with the incident.

The British national originally refused to take a breathalyser test

The sergeant is under arrest in connection with the deletion of details from Mr Smith’s arrest report on the police computer system. Mr Smith was held on suspicion of driving under the influence. However, he has not been charged with anything so far.

MaltaToday reported on Sunday that Mr Smith’s breathalyser test findings and details of the incident had been deleted from the police database. The British national, who has lived in Malta all his life, originally refused to take a breathalyser test. However, he was eventually found to be three times over the legal limit when he was finally breathalysed in the presence of inquiring Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras.

All the information was deleted from the system but it has since been recovered.

Meanwhile, three former judges looking into the incident yesterday continued to hear more witnesses.

They have been tasked by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to look into claims that there had been an attempt to cover up the incident after it became clear that the original version given in a government statement on the night of the incident – claiming Mr Sheehan fired warning shots in the air – was wrong because both bullets actually hit the vehicle.

The government has said it released the information it had been given by the police at the time of the incident. The Opposition, on the other hand, says there was an attempt to cover up what really happened.

The government reacted by asking the retired judges to look into the claims, on top of an ongoing magisterial inquiry.