Three-year probation for making false police report

A legal procurator has accused a police officer of exerting pressure on her to change her version of events when filing a report against her husband.

Legal Procurator Juanita Fenech, 53 of Attard, claimed investigating officer Elton Taliana exerted pressure on her to change her version of events when filing a report against her husband over domestic abuse.

She was later charged with filing a false report, and taking the witness stand in her own defence, told the court that Taliana placed pressure on her to recount a different version of the incident involving an altercation with her husband.

On 5 November, 2010, Fenech calls the Birkirkara police station alleging that her estranged husband Mario Fenech had insulted her outside her residence. The couple were undergoing separation procedures.

Mario Fenech was charged with domestic abuse and granted bail. But when his alibi was corroborated by his bother Alexander Fenech and his wife Angela Fenech, the police arrested Juanita Fenech - eventually after 11 hours under arrest, she released a statement saying she was not sure that the person who had insulted her was her husband.

Juanita Fenech's father, George Cardona, and his son Jamie Cardona, told the court that the accused had informed them that her husband had insulted her. Defence lawyers Joseph Giglio and Stephen Thake also told the court that they had advised their client to file a police report over the insults.

But Magistrate Anthony Vella said that Fenech's version was peppered with inconsistencies.

"She claims that she was scared of the police who allegedly put pressure on her. She was also scared of her allegedly violent husband. If her claims of abuse were true, no pressure would have forced the victim to change her version unless the report was false in the first instant," Magistrate Vella said.

The court decreed that the most fitting punishment would be community work rather than jail time. "She must be kept under a watchful eye, because if she continues down this road, someone is going to get horribly hurt," the court said.

Juanita Fenech was convicted of filing a false report, and placed under a three-year probation order and handed a general temporary interdiction for 10 years.

Dr Joseph Giglio appeared for the accused, while lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima appeared on behalf of Mario Fenech.