A magistrate yesterday ordered the immediate release of a financial services company’s CEO after deeming his arrest illegal.
Irishman Justin Caffrey, 40, was arrested and charged with assaulting and resisting police officers and interfering in their investigations after attempting to stop a young tourist from being beaten by a Paceville bouncer.
Mr Caffrey was arrested at 5am yesterday in St George’s Road, Paceville, and accused of having assaulted and reviled a public officer while he carried out his duties, breaching the peace and disobeying police orders. He was also charged with being drunk and uttering obscene words in public.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard Mr Caffrey’s defence lawyers, Giannella de Marco and George Hyzler, say that their client sought help from a group of police officers, who looked at him and walked away, only telling him an ambulance was on its way.
The accused interfered with the officers’ duties, ‘telling them what they should and should not do’
Mr Caffrey was holding the young man in his arms and had his shirt covered in blood. The youth was taken to hospital but Mr Caffrey could not understand how the police officers “walked away from their duty”, the lawyers said.
Shocked at the officers’ “inaction”, their client tapped them on the shoulder to do something about the incident and was told to mind his own business. To this, the Irishman called the police “fu***** bastards” and that was when he was pinned to the ground and arrested.
Police Inspector Trevor Micallef defended the arrest, saying the accused had interfered with the officers’ duties, “telling them what they should and should not do” and, at one point, even told them he was a judge.
He said that the youth, named as Francesco Coppola, was released from hospital after receiving treatment for slight injuries. No other arrests had been made and the police were not investigating the alleged assault, because the youth had not filed a report.
Magistrate Scerri Herrera said she saw no justification for the arrest and ordered Mr Caffrey’s immediate release.
She also ordered that the youth be traced and brought to court at the next sitting along with the four police officers who were involved in the case.