Former acting police commissioner Ray Zammit insisted in court yesterday that he had never asked anyone to tamper with evidence nor had he attempted to cover up the incident involving former police constable Paul Sheehan.
Mr Zammit also said he had not immediately been told that Mr Sheehan had fired shots at a car and actually hit it.
“When I spoke to him he told me he had fired shots but at no point did he tell me that the car had been hit. He told me: ‘I fired two shots but they were not directed at him’.
“It was only at a later stage that I received a call from Superintendent Alexandra Mamo, who by that time had gone to the scene of the incident, telling me that the car that clipped the minister’s car had been hit and was already on the low loader,” Mr Zammit told the court.
He was testifying before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja during the compilation of evidence against Mr Sheehan, who stands charged with attempting to murder Stephen Smith in Gżira on November 19 last year.
Mr Smith was at the wheel of a Vauxhall Insignia when he clipped the minister’s car. He is facing separate charges of drink-driving and damaging the ministerial car.
He told me he had fired shots but at no point did he tell me that the car had been hit
An inquiry into the shooting incident concluded that Mr Sheehan fired two bullets at Mr Smith’s car and that there was an attempt to cover up the incident. This led to the dismissal of former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia late last year.
But Mr Zammit defended his actions in court yesterday, denying that he had attempted to cover up the incident. He also said the reason he ordered a low loader to go to the Santa Venera tunnels was simply to take the car to headquarters when the police had finished their work at the scene.
“From the information that I received, it looked like any other hit-and-run incident. We see many of them so I instructed a low loader to go there because that is normal practice. At no time did I give any instructions for the car to be taken away or for the scene of the crime to be compromised.
When Superintendent Mamo told me that the car was already on the low loader when she arrived, I told her that it shouldn’t have been touched,” Mr Zammit said.
He said that when he spoke to a Rapid Intervention Unit officer who was on the scene, he was told the cars had been “hit” and that he had taken this to mean that they had been damaged in the impact.
Mr Zammit said he was at the depot hosting a group of foreigners at the time and that former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia was there for the concluding remarks.
When he asked Mr Sheehan for his version of events, he was told the policeman had chased Mr Smith until he emerged from the car with a Heineken bottle in his hand. Mr Zammit quoted Mr Sheehan as having told him: “I used the weapon and shot twice, but not at him.”
Mr Zammit said he spoke to Mr Sheehan some time later “just in case he was still under shock when he first spoke to me”, but the version did not change.
The former police chief said he had instructed a police officer to go to the Msida marina, as Mr Smith had a yacht as his registered address, but was later informed that he was living in Birkirkara.
The case continues later this month. Police Superintendent Alexandra Mamo and Inspector Saviour Baldacchino prosecuted while lawyers Michael Sciriha, Lucio Sciriha and Edward Gatt appeared for Mr Sheehan.
Lawyers Joe Giglio and James D’Agostino appeared parte civile for Mr Smith.