A police officer who claims to have been assaulted by a driver he stopped for swerving could not explain the injuries sustained by the man who, in turn, is claiming was beaten up by the officers who stopped him. 

PC David Camilleri said Jean Paul Aquilina slammed himself against the police car during a scuffle with him and another officer that ensued after he assaulted them. 

The officer seemed perplexed and lost for words when pressed for an explanation by Mr Aquilina's lawyer, Mario de Marco, who showed him photographs of the injuries sustained by his client. 

"Those photographs were not taken by the police forensic unit so they cannot be certified," the officer replied when asked to explain the injuries to Mr Aquilina's face and neck. He could not explain why no breathalyser test was taken once the driver was originally stopped due to a reasonable suspicion that he was drunk. 

He was testifying during the compilation of evidence against Mr Aquilina, 24, from Mosta, who stands charged with dangerous driving, assaulting police officers and disobeying their orders. 

The prosecution today added more charges to the original charge sheet, including dangerous driving, failing to wear a seat belt while driving and driving while using a mobile phone. 

Dr de Marco questioned how these were left out of the original charge sheet but Police Inspector Nicholas Vella said he was "human" and had left them out in error. 

Testifying before Magistrate Carol Peralta, PC Camilleri explained he was on patrol with his colleague, Mark Tonna, early on May 3 when they saw a car swerving on the Mgarr Bypass. At one point the car nearly mounted the pavement. 

Despite not having a siren blaring or the police beacon lights on, Mr Aquilina pulled over. Mr Camilleri said Mr Aquilina was on his mobile phone and asked the officers what he had done wrong. He said Mr Aquilina gave the officers his wrong identity card number on three occasions . 

"I warned him that giving the wrong details was a crime and that we were only checking his particulars but he got out of the car, ran towards us swearing and slapped me, hitting me in the forehead. He grabbed my uniform and tore it, then pushed me and we both fell to the ground," the officer recalled. 

While they were on the ground, "he grabbed me from the neck and tried to suffocate me" until Mr Tonna grabbed him from the back to get him off PC Camilleri. 

"The assailant was red in the face, had bloodshot eyes, was twisting his mouth and was very agitated. He had impressive strength. A scuffle ensued and Mr Aquilina slammed his face against the police car. He started threatening us, telling us he was going to speak to the minister and get us fired and at one point placed his hand on my pistol. We managed to handcuff him and when backup arrived I told other officers to breathalyse him and drive me to the health centre to get examined," PC Camilleri said. 

He added that Mr Aquilina's relatives arrived a short while later and began accusing the officers of "going back to the 1970s". 

PC Camilleri said Mr Aquilina "threw himself on the cars" and "broke his own side mirror" during the altercation. Even on the eye injury, PC Camilleri said it was Mr Aquilina who slammed into the car, suggesting that the injuries were self inflicted. 

He could not explain how Mr Aquilina said in his police statement that he was savagely thrown onto the pavement and had an officer place his foot on his head telling him to be quiet.  He simply said this was "all wrong". 

PC Camilleri also said that Mr Aquilina's girlfriend was hitting them on the back, telling them to stop beating up her boyfriend, prompting the magistrate to remark that an onlooker would not say something of the sort out of the blue, except if she was seeing something that was not right.

"It is incongruous," Magistrate Peralta said.

Under cross examination, PC Camilleri confirmed that he worked the entire shift and then took two days leave for injury on duty. Dr de Marco showed him photos of the injuries his client sustained and told him these were a far cry from the one-millimetre scratch the officer sustained to his forehead and the one- and two-centimetre scratches to his elbows. The officer could not reply. 

At this point, faced by a bombardment of questions, Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri, present in the courtroom as president of the Police Officers' Union, told the lawyer to let the witness reply to the questions, leading to a shouting match between the two. 

Magistrate Peralta told the inspector that he had nothing to do with the case and ordered him to sit down and be quiet. "This is not an industrial tribunal so unless you are here as a prosecuting officer, you are not part of the case," the magistrate said. 

There was yet another shouting match in the courtroom when Dr de Marco asked for permission to present as evidence a Facebook post shared by PC Camilleri in July 2013 which read: "They said fu*k the police so I said fu*k your 911 call, I'll get to your dying home boy when i finish my coffee."

Dr de Marco said the post "showed what kind of police officers the country had" and also showed the "trait of action" with victims. 

The prosecution objected, with Inspector Vella repeating what was being said to him by lawyer Abigail Critien, from the General Workers' Union, who was appearing parte civile for the officers, that Dr de Marco was attempting to intimidate and discredit the witness. 

Answering a final question, PC Camilleri confirmed that he had passed on the photograph of his torn uniform that appeared on the front page of the GWU newspaper It-Torca. 

Earlier in the sitting, Inspector Vella confirmed that while the Mosta health centre referred Mr Aquilina for further treatment, none of the officers were hospitalised.

He also confirmed that no breathalyser test was taken and he did not ask Mr Aquilina during the interrogation how he had sustained his injuries. He also could not explain why no photographs were taken of Mr Aquilina's bloodstained clothes. 

The inspector, under cross examination, also said that he had not interrogated PC Camilleri and PC Tonna, even though he had an official police report claiming that Mr Aquilina had been beaten up by the officers. "I relied on the officers' version of events," he said, the magistrate remarking that it should have been an "obvious" question to ask. 

At the end of the sitting, that was postponed to Wednesday, Magistrate Peralta ordered that Police Commissioner Michael Cassar be brought to testify to brief him on the internal inquiry that had been ordered during the arraignment before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja.

After this, he said, he would decide whether this should continue or whether a magisterial inquiry should be conducted.