Five members of the same family who injured two police officers during a wedding reception in 2011 have had their suspended sentences converted to effective jail terms by an Appeals Court which held that drunkenness was no justification for violence.
Mr Justice Michael Mallia ruled that by taking into consideration the fact that they were drunk at the time of the brawl, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli “seemed to justify” their actions when this could never be acceptable.
Given the seriousness of the case and the fact that the police were assaulted “for no reason at all” while on the line of duty, Mr Justice Mallia converted their suspended sentences into imprisonment.
The Attorney General, on behalf of the police, had appealed against the sentence imposed by the magistrate last September, saying the offence merited harsher punishment.
Peter Camilleri, 58, the father of the groom, was jailed for a year; his twin sons Peter Paul and Jesrit-Angel, 23, were jailed for 12 months and 20 months respectively; their cousin Carren Camilleri, 33, was jailed for 14 months; while their uncle Joseph Medina, 48, was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.
The defendants all hail from Żabbar.
The court heard that the incident happened at St Anne’s reception hall in Marsascala, on September 25, 2011, at around 2.30pm when an argument broke out between two women, one of whom was drunk.
When Jesrit-Angel Camilleri got involved in the argument, police officer Francis Formosa tried to calm down the situation and asked him for his particulars; however, he was told: “Don’t get involved you idiot”. Within seconds, the situation escalated and the group assaulted the officer and started to beat him.
The second officer, Jurgen Zerafa, tried to help his colleague and was punched and kicked repeatedly as he lay on the floor.
One of the officers suffered a broken arm and the other suffered severe bruising and facial injuries.
Other family members intervened but as the two officers walked away, trying to radio for help, they were suddenly hit from behind. It was then that police constable Formosa suffered a fractured wrist.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Mallia said the first court “would have done the right thing” had it quoted Roman law that states that “who commits a mistake when drunk, must pay for it when sober”.
“Drunkenness should never serve as justification for violence or any other criminal offence” and that, “as a rule”, violence should be punished with an effective jail term.
“There is no doubt that the defendants showed gross arrogance and behaved like bullies when they attacked the police who were simply doing their job,” he said as he jailed the family members.