The defence counsel of former Police Inspector David Gatt this morning described police informant PC99 Mario Portelli as 'Monica Lewinski' and said his criminal record should be exhibited in court.

The comment was made during the resumption of the compilation of evidence against Dr Gatt.

David Gatt stands accused of planning a string of hold-ups. He is accused, among other things, of involvement in the attempted hold-up on HSBC headquarters in June last year and the hold-up on a jeweller in Attard in late November, both of which were foiled during shoot-outs.

Counsel Joe Giglio, who is appearing for Dr Gatt, said that while the accused had a clean criminal record, the same could not be said of prosecution witness 'Monica Lewinski' Mario Portelli.

He said that his criminal record should be exhibited in court.

Monica Lewinski was at the heart of the sex scandal which dominated the Clinton presidency and almost led to his impeachment.

During this morning's proceedings, the prosecution asked the court to issue a seizure order (for the assets of the accused to be frozen).

The court provisionally upheld the request until a hearing next Tuesday, when a decision on whether Dr Gatt should be granted bail will be taken..

A number of forensic experts, including Dr Mario Scerri testified this morning and described the various crime scenes and their investigations.

The defence asked Dr Scerri whether he was ever given strands of hair to analyse. Dr Scerri said hair had been mentioned but he was not given any.

The experts also presented the court with a pistol, DVDs, a board game 'Dinner with the Mafia', documents (related to free masonry) and other items seized from Dr Gatt's home and office. (People in the court hall could see that the top document was called The Grand Lodge of Malta).

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101222/local/police-inspector-turned-station-into-criminal-club