Unlicensed hunter jailed over shooting incident while violating lifetime ban

An unlicensed hunter has been jailed for 20 months and fined €7,000 after admitting to charges emerging from an incident in which he shot at and injured another hunter.

36-year-old Simon Camilleri from Zabbar appeared in the dock before magistrate Lara Lanfranco on Wednesday, accused of hunting a protected species during the closed season, without a hunting licence, as well as using a firearm without a licence.

Camilleri was further charged with inflicting slight injury to another man through negligence, and recidivism. The court was also requested to confiscate the weapon and revoke any licence that had been issued to the defendant.

A protection order for the victim was also requested.

The defendant was observed to break down in tears a number of times throughout the sitting and was consoled by his mother, who was sitting next to him.

Camilleri, who told the court that he was employed by the Cleansing Department, admitted the charges.

When asked by the court whether he wished to confirm his plea he did, tearfully, asking the court to “go easy on me.”

Inspector Kitcher in his submissions on punishment said the defendant had cooperated with the police and admitted guilt at an early stage. He told the court that he had no objection to a “punishment at the minimum of legal parameters.”

Lawyer Yanika Barbara Sant, defence counsel, told the court that her client had been snail- picking with his father. “Although hunting is his passion, he didn’t intend to go out hunting. He knew that he can’t hunt anymore but at that moment, for a split second, his brain thought otherwise.”

Barbara Sant said the defendant was very sorry for his actions and hadn’t intended to hurt anyone. “He happened to be in a field which is owned by his family and spotted a turtle dove, shooting at it instinctively. He didn’t know that anyone else was in the vicinity.”

The shotgun was not his, but was registered to his father, added the lawyer, saying that this showed that the incident was unplanned. “He had no intention of causing damage to anyone,” insisted the defence.

In between bouts of pitiful sobbing in the dock. Camilleri told the court that his sister was getting married in a few weeks and that he was very worried about missing it.

The defendant had also been hit with seven pieces of birdshot fired by the other hunters, added the lawyer. “They shot at him to kill him” piped up Camilleri’s mother from the back of the courtroom.

The magistrate asked the lawyers to approach the bench to discuss the case privately, in view of the man’s many previous brushes with the law.

In 2013, a court had banned Camilleri from holding a hunting licence for life, upon his admission to several charges relating to illegal hunting.

He had been fined €3,000 in 2020, after being found guilty of having hunted birds during the closed season, five years before.

That same year Camilleri and his father, Carmelo, had also been convicted shooting at three other hunters with a shotgun registered to the father.

The court of appeal had told Camilleri that it was going to give him his last chance and reduced his three-year prison sentence to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, together with a €2,000 fine and a lifetime ban on holding a hunting licence.

The defendant is understood to have also been arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession at the Zejtun’s village feast last month, although no mention of this was made in open court.

Finding no legal reason not to accept the man’s admission of guilt, Magistrate Lanfranco, the court sentenced Camilleri to imprisonment for 20 months, together with a fine of €7,000, which he may pay in monthly instalments

The court also ordered that the shotgun used be confiscated and noted that the man’s licences had already been revoked. A two-year restraining order in favour of the victim was also issued.

The court explained to the defendant that he could not contact or approach the victim or engage third parties to do so in the next two years, on pain of further charges which carried with them a potential two-year prison sentence and €7,000 fine.

“Can’t be helped,” Camilleri said before being led out of the courtroom, seemingly having made his peace with the prospect of incarceration.

“Is there a treatment for hunting addiction? I would go for that,” were his last words to the court.

Inspector Gabriel Kitcher prosecuted. Lawyer Yanika Barbara Sant assisted Camilleri.