Suspended sentence for motorist who assaulted disabled man in road-rage incident

Frankie Falzon, 32, from Qormi and residing in Zebbug, was handed an 18-month jail term suspended for three years and had his driving license suspended for three months after he was found guilty of causing slight injuries to a disabled person and damaging two vehicles.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli found the accused guilty of slightly injuring John Grech, damaging two vehicles and becoming a recidivist. He was bound with a personal guarantee of €500 not to harass the John and Anthony Grech, whom he assaulted.

The case dates back to 2 May 2010, when John Grech and his brother Anthony were driving in Mdina Road, Zebbug when the accused overtook them and then stopped to give way to the traffic going around a roundabout.

When the accused put his car in gear, he reversed onto the vehicle driven by Anthony Grech. Both the accused and the two brothers got out of their vehicles to assess the damage, leading to a brawl where Falzon was accused of having hit John Grech.

Anthony Grech claimed he repeatedly told the accused to let his brother go and that he was disabled, but when the accused did not stop, Grech told his brother to drive off in his vehicle while he escaped on foot.

Taking the stand, John Grech said that the accused gave chase, ramming his car as he drove on until he forced him to crash into a parked vehicle. Grech said that Falzon emerged from his car to attack him, until the police arrived on the scene together with his father.

Falzon, who chose not to give evidence in court, had already released a police statement saying that the witness had crashed into him near a roundabout in Zebbug. He claimed the Grechs started insulting him and then drove away from the scene, at which point he gave chase and that it was only when the Grechs suddenly braked that he crashed into them, ramming the car into a parked vehicle.

He also said that when he realised that John Grech was a disabled person, he regretted what had happened.

Grech admitted that he had had two glasses of wine for lunch and also a beer, when police asked him whether he was under the influence of alcohol.

Evidence given by sergeant James Weatherhill corroborated the claims of the Grech brothers, and that he witnessed Falzon assaulting John Grech while inside his car. Grech was said to have emerged with his clothes ripped apart, and that it was the police officer himself who had to physically restrain Falzon.