Man threw urine on neighbour’s door in tit-for-tat

Anthony Bugeja, 50 of Zejtun was reprimanded by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona after pleading guilty to splashing urine on a neighbour's door.

Earlier this year on 20 August Joseph Tabone filed a police report alleging an unknown person was splashing his door and his vehicle with urine and cooking oil. A week later he informed the police that he had installed a CCTV system through which he had identified the culprit. He gave the police a CD with footage of the accused caught red-handed.

Anthony Bugeja was summoned by the police. He claimed that the victim and his daughter had walked their dog and allowed the animal to relieve himself against his door. "I've had enough of them and their dog urine. In 2010 I filed a police report but nothing changed," he had told the officers.

The police then approached Tabone over these claims but he had denied the allegations and insisted he regularly saw stray dogs passing urine next to the accused's door.

The accused explained that he started to splash his own urine against the victim's door to even the odds. When Tabone installed a CCTV camera, the accused continued his action, "because I wanted him to known who it was. I wanted him to file a report which would end in court so I can tell the Magistrate what I've been going through," Bugeja said.

Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona reprimanded both the accused and the alleged victim. The court released the accused on condition that neither he nor the victim harass each other again. "You cannot take law in your hand and behave as judge and jury," the court told Bugeja. The two were warned to desist from similar actions.