Conditional discharge for man who harassed minister

A court of appeal has conditionally discharged a man on bail for allegedly harassing minister Roderick Galdes, overturning his three-month sentence for breaching his bail conditions.

Eugene Galea of Lija, 57, had been released on bail after being arraigned for harassing Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Roderick Galdes in 2013. Galea was later sentenced to three month’s imprisonment after he was found to have breached his bail conditions, by failing to appear for a court sitting and by attempting to contact a witness.

Galea had sent Police Inspector Ramon Mercieca, one of the witnesses summoned to testify in the proceedings against him, a message on Facebook on the eve of the sitting the inspector was due to testify in.

However, Mr Justice David Scicluna, presiding the Court of Criminal Appeal, observed that Galea had explained that he had been under the impression that the police inspector was an investigating officer rather than a witness in the proceedings and had contacted him in this capacity.

The Court of Magistrates had fined Galea €100 for contempt of court and ordered his arrest after he failed to appear for one of the sittings. The man had subsequently refused to cooperate with the police officers sent to arrest him.

He was charged with two counts of breaching bail and with resisting arrest.

The court of appeal, presided by Mr Justice David Scicluna, observed that the accused had already been convicted of contempt of court which should have been an alternative charge to breaching bail conditions, which bound him to attend all court sittings and for which he had been fined by that court. The other breach was absorbed into the first offence, the court held, clearing him of the second charge.

With regards to the charges relating to resisting arrest, the court said his actions constituted obstruction of the police in the course of their duties, noting that the police had tried to make the man, who had been very shocked to find himself being arrested, as comfortable as possible.

In view of the accused’s relatively clean criminal record and after taking into account the 10 days which Galea had spent under arrest as a result of his unsanctioned absence, the court overturned the man’s conviction for the second bail breach and amalgamated the charges of resisting arrest, revoking the man’s three-month prison sentence and the order for his rearrest and instead handing the man a six-month conditional discharge.