Conditional discharge for man in road rage case

A man has been handed a conditional discharge after his road rage case had to be retried due to an appeal in court.

40-year-old Angel Attard  must pay €1,506.40 to the court after he admitted to beating a plainclothes policeman who stopped him for dangerous driving.

While he pleaded guilty to threatening and attacking the man, he did not plead guilty to attacking a police officer. He did so on the basis that he had not known that the victim was a police officer at the time of the crime.

When the court first heard the case, the Court of Magistrates handed Attard a 250-hour community service order for grievous bodily harm.

But the Attorney General appealed the sentence, arguing that the punishment was too light for the charges which the man had admitted to.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided by Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja, eventually determined that the case had to be retried because the police withdrew the charge of attacking a police officer.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared as defence counsel.