Labour MP and lawyer Justyne Caruana protested in Parliament this evening that the metal detector installed at the law courts building in Gozo after last week's stabbing incident does not work .

"This is a case of adding insult to injury," Dr Caruana said in an adjournment speech.

She recalled how in the past, it had been said in Parliament that it was difficult to install the metal detector because the Gozo court building was old. A detector was, however, quickly installed after last week's incident.

Dr Caruana said that after she was told that this was old equipment which had been removed from the Valletta court building because it did not work, she decided to test it herself.

She put a bunch of keys in her bag and walked through the detector, and, indeed, the machine did not go off.

This, she said, was another case how the people of Gozo were being treated as second class citizens. One could hardly expect this so-called metal detector to detect a penknife when it did not even detect her bunch of keys.

The people who went to court had a right to security and until it was provided, they were being deprived of a fundamental right.

Whoever was in charge needed to assume his responsibilities, Dr Caruana said.