A court has dismissed a libel suit filed by former Mayor of Paola, Dominic Grima, against Louiselle Vassallo, editor of NET TV.

Mr Grima had requested the court, presided over by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, to find that a news bulletin, broadcast on NET TV on November 9, 2010 was libellous as it alleged that he was a member of a pornographic dating site for gay men.

On her part Ms Vassallo said that the news item was not libellous as it was a fair comment based on facts.

The court heard that Mr Grima was mayor of Paola Local Council in the period between March 2007 and March 2012. On November 8 2010, Mr Grima had sent an email to his fellow councillors in which he told them that he was going to cancel the council meeting scheduled the November 10 as he was unwell.

Mr Grima's email, sent from his personal computer, was delivered to a number of addresses inlcuding "team@outpersonals.com".

On November 9 2010 NET TV stated that Mr Grima had sent emails to this email address which was described by the television station as being a pornographic website for gay dating.

Magistrate Depasquale said that Mr Grima had admitted to sending the email to the dating site but had declared that he was not a member of the site and that he had no idea how this address was included in his contacts.

Although Mr Grima said that the email address had been received by him as spam, the court found it unlikely that such an address could have entered his personal computer without any involvement on Mr Grima's part.

The court concluded that the news item on NET TV was a fair comment on facts which were substantially true, and it dismissed the libel suit.