Fingerprints mismatch clears serial thief of 1999 gold theft

A man accused with the theft of jewellery and cash from a hotel room 14 years ago, was acquitted of all charges after it was revealed that fingerprints lifted from the scene of the crime did not match.

Patrick Mangion, 40 of Zabbar, was described as a serial thief who always pleaded guilty to the charges against him, but this time he claimed that the accusation was a frame-up and pleaded not guilty to the charges of theft.

Mangion was accused of stealing gold items and Lm100 (€233) in cash and other objects from a hotel room at the former Bugibba Holiday Complex, and charged with relapsing.

Witness Lynn Currie, a British national claimed she met the accused at her hotel room, and subsequently found over GBP600 worth of jewellery missing, which jewellery was at the time insured. She identified Mangion in court, telling the court he had passed himself as as the hotel's plumber.

Currie identified Mangion from over 200 photos the police had on record, and then picked him again from an ID parade held at the police headquarters.

Another witness, Catriona Hardie, who was Currie's travelling partner, also testified that she found £800 in jewellery missing from the room. She picked three individuals from the photo records but only Mangion was selected for the ID parade.

But her description of Mangion having "very good English" was challenged in court by a teacher from the Corradino Correctional Facility, where Mangion already spent a period in jail over previous convictions.

Joseph Vella told the court Mangion did not have a good grasp of either Maltese or English, saying his level of education was comparable to that of a primary school pupil. "He could not even string together words to form a phrase," the teacher said of Mangion, who took lessons with him in prison in 2012.

The court also heard former police inspector Noel Cutajar say that the suspect was described by the victims as having been over six feet tall. Mangion was subsequently identified by the two tourists in two separate ID parades, but the police inspector was present for neither of them.

Patrick Mangion himself told the court his accusers were lying, saying he was twice identified in the ID parade only because he was the tallest in the line-up.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman said that the fact that only one of three suspects picked from police record photos shown to the victims had been included in the ID parades, challenged the validity of the parades themselves.

The court also said that contrary to the victims' claims, the accused did not have a good command of the English language.

Court expert Joseph Bongailas also testified that none of the fingerprints found at the scene of the crime matched Mangion's.

The court acquitted the accused of all charges brought against him. Dr Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima appeared for the accused.