A man who has spent the past 20 years waiting to face charges of having supplied a woman with heroin which led to her fatal overdose has started separate proceedings saying he is being denied justice within a reasonable time.

Lawrence Attard’s court saga started back in 1999, when he was charged with the unlawful procurement of heroin and with having allegedly, through negligence, supplied the drug that led to the fatal overdose of 25-year-old Theresa Agius, whose body was found floating at sea off the Delimara coast, hands and feet trussed up with blue nylon wire. 

Following a constitutional reference, the First Hall, Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction, had in 2004 declared that court delays amounted to a breach of the accused’s right to a fair hearing within reasonable time and ordered the Magistrates’ Court to deal with the case expediently.

Mr Attard was finally sentenced to six years in prison and to pay a €10,000 fine in November 2013.

However, that judgment was annulled on appeal on the grounds that the Magistrates’ Court had cited the wrong provisions of law. The court of criminal appeal ordered the case to be heard all over again.

Twenty years on, Mr Attard is still facing criminal proceedings for the 1999 incident. He has now filed a second application for a constitutional reference claiming that his right to a fair hearing is being breached.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, noted that the 2004 order for the criminal case to be dealt with promptly had not been implemented.

Fourteen years later, criminal proceedings were still pending, the court observed, concluding that in the light of such circumstances, Mr Attard’s request for a second constitutional reference was neither frivolous nor vexatious and thus merited being upheld thereby referring his grievance to the appropriate constitutional forum.

Lawyer Edward Gatt was counsel to the applicant.