Drug trafficker guilty of Rachel Bowdler’s involuntary homicide 13 years ago

Drug trafficker David Gatt, 36, has admitted to the involuntary homicide of 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler who died of an overdose in 2001.

Gatt was imprisoned for four years and three months and fined €2,300 after pleading guilty of the involuntary murder. Gatt had sold Bowdler the dose of heroin which killed her in 2001.

Gatt was to face a trial by jury over the involuntary homicide, but today he chose to plead guilty. He also faced charges of drug trafficking. At the time of the offence the highest penalty at law for involuntary homicide was two years imprisonment.

The lifeless body of Bowdler was dumped in a field at Ras il-Gebel, limits of Mġarr on 13 May 2001.

Bowdler had overdosed on heroin she bough together with another drug addict, James Decelis. The two bought the drugs from Gatt, but after taking her shot, the 18-year-old lost consciousness and Decelis, who was with her, panicked.

Decelis turned to his father for help but Bowdler did not move. When Decelis's mother, Concetta, returned home from work she refused to take the teenager to hospital and insisted that she wanted the body out of her apartment.

The father had meanwhile left the apartment after fighting with Concetta but was called back to Bugibba to dispose of the body.

The trio carried the lifeless body of the girl to a car and drove off to Mgarr where they dumped Bowdler's body.

In June 2006, Concetta Decelis was jailed for 15 years and her son Jason for 25, in the first ever conviction in Malta for murder by omission.

The father, Carmel Decelis, was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of involuntary homicide but acquitted of murder. The prosecution argued that had the family sought help, rather than try and hide the case, the young woman could have been saved.

Three years later, in 2009, investigations led to the arraignment of David Gatt.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Edward Gatt appeared for the accused.