Convicted murderer found guilty of blinding fellow inmate

David Norbert Schembri, currently serving a life sentence for fatally stabbing his former girlfriend, has been jailed for a further seven years after being found guilty of slashing another inmate’s eyeball with a razor, blinding him in one eye.

Schembri had argued with fellow prisoner Noel Borg at the prison infirmary in June 2010, in which Schembri insulted the Borg's deceased father. 

He claimed to have been tipped off that Borg planned to pay him back and began hiding a shiv he had fashioned out of a shaving blade and a plastic handle on his person when he would go for his methadone dose, "to give him the first blow".

The court heard Borg testify how on the day of the incident, he had been behind Schembri in the queue for methadone. As he entered the treatment room, Schembri slashed Borg across the face with the shiv, severely damaging his cornea and causing him to lose all sight in that eye. 

Schembri's defence counsel claimed that the accused had an arachnoid cyst, which caused pressure on the brain and affected his behaviour, however a court-appointed neurologist reported that the cyst was not located in an area which would result in this behaviour.

The accused chose to testify, telling the court that Borg had allegedly stabbed him a week before, adding that he "had not reported it because there was no one at the police station at that time." He said that it was normal for everyone to be carrying a blade in prison and claimed that he had slashed Borg in preemptive self-defence.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli however found this explanation unconvincing. The court said it was in "no doubt that the version of events as told by Noel Borg is factual."

The magistrate noted that there was no indication that Borg had attacked the accused, nor had any weapon been found on his person, which put paid to the accused's claim of self-defence. She added that Schembri had never identified the source of the tip off which he had attributed to have given rise to his violent action.

Pointing out that the legal excuse of self-defence could only be used in instances where the person had been reacting to an attack, she found him to be guilty of grievous bodily harm, resulting in a permanent debility, carrying a sharp or pointed instrument without the necessary licence, breaching the peace and relapsing and imposed a seven-year sentence.

Schembri will die in prison. He is currently serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his former partner, 32-year-old Josette Scicluna. Schembri had shot open the door of Scicluna's flat in 2004 and cornered her in the kitchen, stabbing her 49 times while the couple’s daughter, then aged only seven, looked on helplessly.

The court had been told that of the 49 stab wounds he inflicted, only four were deep, a court expert explaining that Scicluna had suffered extreme torture in the moments before her death.The prosecuting officer at the time had described the murder as "a case of extreme cruelty, something rarely witnessed in these courts." 

Lawyer Joe Brincat appeared for Schembri. Inspector Jurgen Vella prosecuted.