A man who admitted to causing a fracas at the Floriana health centre, was sent to Mount Carmel Hospital for treatment by a court after it transpired that on the day of the incident he was not mentally sane, partly due to his addiction to a synthetic drug.

The judgment in connection with this case delivered by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, was based on the strength of a medical report compiled by court-appointed expert psychiatrist David Cassar.

“The accused was suffering from an acute psychotic state at the time of the incident on April 8, 2016, and most probably had been suffering from this state for a period of at least one week,” the expert concluded.

He also pointed out that his behaviour was possibly precipitated and or maintained by his addiction to synthetic cannabinoids. Consequently, the accused was not in control of his intellectual and volitional powers, Dr Cassar said.

In his report the expert also found that the accused, a 21-year-old Somali who had been in Malta for four years, had already got into trouble with the authorities and was well known to the police. For this reason, his friends would not offer him shelter fearing they would be putting themselves at risk. In the preceding seven-month period prior to the incident he was mostly living on the streets.

The accused was very frustrated and anxious and started using synthetic cannabinoids and was becoming obsessed that he was being followed and persecuted by plainclothes police officers, the expert remarked.

Dr Cassar noted that on the day of the incident the man was also under the influence of cocaine and went to the health centre as he could not sleep. Though he could not remember what happened, the defendant claimed he was once again being followed, the report said. The psychiatrist, however, pointed out that following the administration of antipsychotic medication, the defendant had become mentally stable.

In its decision the court said that even though it was faced with an admission, on the day of the incident he was not in control of himself, as certified by Dr Cassar.

“The court feels that the accused is a genuine person and has no reason to doubt what the psychiatrist said about him, in that at the time of the offense he was not of sound mind and consequently not having any intent to commit such action”, the magistrate said.

The court noted that the criminal code excluded any punishment and guilt in cases where the perpetrator was declared mentally insane at the time of the crime.