Three notorious criminals walked out of court free yesterday thanks to insufficient evidence and an unreliable main witness.
Daren Debono, 38, from Marsascala, known as it-Topo, Alfred Degiorgio, 50, from Marsascala, il-Fulu, and Vincent Muscat, 53, from Msida, il-Koħħu, were acquitted of having participated in an armed hold-up on the employees of Valhmor Borg Ltd in Marsa in March 2004.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera found the main witness of the prosecution not to be credible, pointing out his evidence was not corroborated in any way by circumstantial evidence.
Moreover, she pointed out that, according to law, where the only witness against the accused was an accomplice, the evidence would not suffice to secure a conviction.
To make matters worse for the prosecution, none of the witnesses produced identified any of the accused because the perpetrators were wearing balaclavas.
The prosecution’s main witness, Anthony Gafà, worked as a delivery man with the company and admitted being an accomplice in the crime during which about €42,000 had been stolen. He confessed he had leaked information on company procedures. He had been given a suspended sentence.
He did not remember discussing the armed robbery with the three men
In a 30-page judgment, the magistrate noted that the three men were only arraigned last year, 10 years after the robbery. This made it difficult for any of the witnesses to clearly remember details.
Mr Gafà did not testify during the proceedings after the prosecution declared him a hostile witness. However, a statement he had released to the police during investigations was exhibited in court.
In it he said that he would place the day’s earnings in an HSBC money bag before handing it over to the accounts department.
He said he could not recall telling a CID inspector he had been approached by a person known as it-Topo three weeks earlier and neither did he remember discussing the armed robbery with the three men.
PC Robert Ebejer had testified that when Mr Gafà was interrogated soon after the crime, the suspect had mentioned three people in his statement: il-Koħħu, il-Fulu and Mr Debono. However, Mr Gafà said he could not remember any of this.
Arthur Guzman, the firm’s financial controller, said that, on March 26, 2004, he was at his office when two armed robbers wearing balaclavas entered the offices at about 4pm and demanded money. One of the robbers hit him with a revolver on the head because he refused to pass on the cash immediately.
He said he could not recognise any of the accused because the intruders had their faces covered.
Magistrate Scerri Herrera was informed that scientific tests, such as an analysis of fingerprints, did not yield any positive results.
She said the many doubts made it impossible for the court to reach the conclusion, beyond reasonable doubt, that the three accused had committed the robbery and therefore cleared them of the charges.
Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca prosecuted. Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi defended.