A police inspector yesterday expressed frustration at having to deal with unruly and violent English-language students, as a young Frenchman was arraigned on a charge of threatening officers with a knife.
Insp. Nikolai Sant said the 18-year-old student, Joey Gossain, had bought a Coke from a vending machine inside a hotel and when it did not return his €1 change, he smashed the machine, causing €290 in damage. The incident took place on Sunday at around 8.30 p.m. in Paceville.
When the police arrived to investigate the matter, Mr Gossain ran up to his room, took hold of a knife and told them “go away, go away”, Insp. Sant testified. “These are the types of students and tourism we are bringing to Malta and what the police have to deal with everyday,” the officer said.
Legal aid lawyer Joseph Ellis played down the incident, describing it as just a bit of teenage bravado, to which the inspector said “bravado everyday”.
Dr Ellis told Magistrate Marseann Farrugia that his client had a clean police record. He was very sorry for what he had done and could pay for the damage immediately.
Mr Gossain pleaded guilty to damaging the machine, violently resisting three officers, assaulting them, disobeying orders, breaching the peace and carrying a knife without a licence.
The magistrate warned him, as is standard procedure, that he was facing a maximum of one year and nine months in jail and gave him time to reconsider his guilty verdict.
Once he confirmed, the magistrate jailed him for two years suspended for four and fined him €116.
This was the second time a police inspector has expressed frustration at incidents involving language students in Paceville.
Last month, Inspector Trevor Micallef said “you have no idea what it is like working in Paceville with all that trash,” after describing an incident in which about 70 language students were involved in a brawl.
He made the comment during an arraignment in which four Italians, two Brazilians and two Spanish students admitted to their involvement in the fight and were conditionally discharged.