A man lied to his mother, to the police and to a magistrate about being a victim of police brutality in Paceville, it emerged in court yesterday.

Etienne Caruana, a 30-year-old from Iklin, decided to come clean on the incident, admitting he lied under oath when he told a magistrate the same story he had told his mother: that he had been on the receiving end of a “severe beating” at the hands of the police early in the morning on New Year’s Day.

A few days after the incident, his mother had written a letter to the Police Commissioner claiming her son had been beaten up by “thug” police officers in the back of their van, suffering cuts and lacerations to the head.

But a magisterial inquiry carried out by Magistrate Gabriella Vella, opened by the police, established that what really happened was the other way around: it was Mr Caruana who had assaulted the police after refusing to give them his particulars. Appearing before Magistrate Ian Farrugia, Mr Caruana pleaded guilty to lying under oath and to accusing the officers of a crime he knew they had not committed.

He also admitted to charges of resisting the police, assaulting them, refusing to give them his details, disobeying their orders, breaching the peace and smoking inside a pub.

It was Mr Caruana who had assaulted the police after refusing to give them his particulars

Mr Caruana was sentenced a two-year jail term suspended for four years, fined €1,200 and placed under a five-year general interdiction.

Lawyers Vince Micallef and Jean Paul Sammut were defence counsel. Police Inspectors Elton Taliana and Trevor Micallef prosecuted.

In her letter, the mother had claimed the young man was at Playground bar (which forms part of Sky Club Malta) when, at about 5am, a policeman approached him and demanded his particulars because he was smoking.

“Witnesses who I spoke to confirmed that he was not alone in this, as many of the clientele present were also smoking, but your officer picked on him as he was the worst for drink, the smallest and to make an example out of him.”

She claimed the officer handcuffed her son, threw him into a van and gave him a “severe beating”. “He sustained cuts and lacerations to the head, bruised ribs and muscles.

“The young man was then dumped into the street where his friends found him,” the mother had claimed.

The letter, which was copied to some media organisations including Times of Malta, had asked for an investigation.