It was only timely intervention by the police that prevented a man from assaulting a reporter of The Times at the Law Courts, a police constable testified yesterday.
We didn’t give him the chance to hit him
“We didn’t give him the chance to hit him,” Police Constable Leroy Balzan Engerer said in the compilation of evidence against Maximillian Ciantar, from Marsa, whose name has become associated with an accident last year in which he ran over twin girls in Attard at high speed.
Mr Ciantar is being accused of assaulting The Times reporter Waylon Johnston and threatening Ray Abdilla of MediaLink Communications and Gaetano Micallef of Union Print on November 21 – just minutes after being granted bail for breaching his driving ban.
Mr Balzan Engerer said he was escorting 21-year-old Mr Ciantar out of the courtroom when, still handcuffed, he gestured with his hands as though he remembered something and turned around.
“We thought that he turned to speak to his father but he went for the journalists who were behind him and tried to punch Mr Johnston,” he said.
When asked by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona whether he heard Mr Ciantar speak to the journalists, Mr Balzan Engerer said: “I heard something about kicks but don’t remember what he said exactly.”
In his testimony, Mr Johnston said he was in Magistrate Jaqueline Padovani’s courtroom waiting for the arraignment of Mr Ciantar who was charged with defying a court ban on driving.
“He turned to us and told us in a low voice ‘leave now or you’ll be kicked out’,” Mr Johnston said.
After the arraignment, Mr Ciantar walked out of the courtroom, turned and lunged towards Mr Johnston. “I darted out of the way and then the police escorts stopped him,” he said.
Mr Micallef confirmed Mr Johnston’s testimony and added that he saw Mr Ciantar put out his leg in an attempt to trip up the Times reporter.
When asked by the magistrate whether he felt threatened when Mr Ciantar spoke to them in the courtroom, Mr Micallef said he did and pointed out that no one had provoked him or spoken to him.
Following a request by Dr Brincat, Magistrate Micallef Trigona granted the accused bail against a personal guarantee of €2,000. Police Inspector Daniel Zammit objected.
He had already been granted bail in a separate case but the decision was revoked and last week he was rearrested.
But even though Mr Ciantar was granted bail yesterday, he will remain in custody on the strength of the last re-arrest.
Mr Ciantar had been jailed for two years and banned from driving for six months after being convicted of running over Sarah Marie and Rebecca Marie Falzon on April 28, 2010, as they crossed a road in Attard. He was driving his van at over 100kph. Just 10 days after leaving jail in October he was caught breaching the driving ban.