Psychiatric evaluation ordered for self-confessed throat-slashing mugger

A man accused of slashing a woman’s throat in a brutal mugging has asked to be allowed to plead guilty to attempted homicide despite claiming he “did not want to hurt her” and saying he “just wanted all this to be over.”

Compilation proceedings against Rawad Briga Abdelsalam, a 33-year-old Libyan quarry worker continued before magistrate Doreen Clarke this afternoon.

Abdelsalam was charged with attempted murder after the violent mugging, which took place in Sqaq Lourdes, St Julian’s on 28 August 2016, at around 4:20am. He was identified from CCTV footage after police investigating him for a second violent crime found.

The accused is thought to have approached the victim and her friend, a 33-year-old woman from Poland, and tried to steal their handbags. At one point, the man took out a knife and tried to cut the Maltese woman’s throat  before making off with her handbag. Photos taken at the scene of the crime showed a blood-stained pavement, while a nearby car was also covered in blood.

“I am guilty, I want this to be over. I swear because at the end of the day God will judge me,” said the accused as he waited for his lawyer  - at least his third so far - to arrive.

“I am guilty, I do not know the girl, I did not want to hurt her, I had taken a lot of pills, I can hardly remember what happened,” he protested as Inspector Saviour Baldacchino and Magistrate Doreen Clarke told the man to wait for his lawyer, Chris Chircop.

In a previous sitting the man had claimed to have taken Rivotril, a benzodiazepine, with alcohol.

The efforts of the court and the prosecution did not stop the accused from continuing to protest his guilt, however.

“I was with the girl, she was sick, she took drugs and I didn’t know what to do,” he said, highly agitated. “I took her handbag and gave it to her. I was asleep for a week and I don’t remember a thing.”

After Chircop arrived and advised the accused, the sitting resumed with the prosecution and defence explaining that the issue had been resolved and the accused would be discussing the matter further with his counsel before any change of plea was made.

The court proceeded to establish the value of the stolen iPhone, but after a few minutes, Abdelsalam interjected again. “Magistrate I want you to know that this woman I do not know her …” he began, before being stopped by the court. It was not time for defence submissions, said the magistrate.

It is however unlikely that  the accused’s change of heart will be accepted as a guilty plea by the court, not least as the reason he gave for it would render it vitiated at law.

The case continues in March.