A man currently serving an 18-year jail term over a road rage incident back in 2005 has been awarded €3,000 by way of non-pecuniary damages in constitutional proceedings filed three years ago.

Stephen Pirotta, 48, from Luqa, has been serving time behind bars ever since his conviction in 2010 following a trial by jury over the attempted murder, during which he had stabbed a motorist in the chest in Qormi.

The victim, David Azzopardi, had been stabbed as he sat in his car, in the course of an argument which had broken out between the two motorists after Mr Pirotta had allegedly hit the side mirror of the other motorist’s car during an overtaking manoeuvre.

Two hours after the incident, the aggressor had been arrested, subsequently releasing a statement to the police without consulting a lawyer.

He was arraigned over the attempted murder within 36 hours of his arrest.

The man ultimately underwent a trial by jury which resulted in a guilty verdict of 7-2, landing an 18-year jail term that was confirmed on appeal.

In February 2016, the man had filed a constitutional application claiming that his right to a fair hearing had been breached since he had released his statement to the police without being assisted by a lawyer.

When delivering judgment, the First Hall, Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, observed that the applicant had not been linked to the crime on the strength of his statement to the police, but had been identified as the suspect through other circumstantial facts which led to his arrest and which could reasonably link him to the incident.

The absence of the statement “would have made the prosecution’s case more difficult to prove, but that did not mean that the police did not have other valid evidence to support its allegations against the accused,” the court observed.

The Court, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef, observed that the accused had not objected in this regard while criminal proceedings were still ongoing.

It held the view that if a party failed to take up the remedy of claiming a breach of his right to a fair hearing once proceedings were ongoing, “it would not be just for that party to resort to the ‘constitutional’ remedy so as to attempt to cancel the effects of those proceedings”.

As for the applicant’s claim regarding the denied access to his police file, the Court observed that it had not been proven how this could have breached his right to a fair hearing.

The man had been arraigned 36 hours after his arrest and from then on, all evidence in the police file had been “at the complete disposition of the accused and his lawyers,” the Court observed.

In light of all this, the Court upheld the applicant’s claim of a breach of rights but only limitedly because the statement had been released without the assistance or presence of his lawyer and had been produced as evidence throughout the criminal proceedings.

For this reason, the Court awarded the applicant €3,000 by way of non-pecuniary damages. This was to be borne jointly by the two respondents, namely the AG and the Police Commissioner.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia assisted the applicant in the constitutional proceedings.