A police inspector who exposed the fact that a man had been wrongly accused of carrying out a hold-up has filed a libel case against a Maltese newspaper over its allegations against him.

Police Inspector Elton Taliana has instituted libel proceedings against the General Workers’ Union newspaper It-Torċa over a report carried last Sunday entitled Young Man Ended Up In Prison By Mistake: Inspector Knew Of Mistake And Did Nothing.

The case hit the headlines last Friday when Inspector Taliana told a magistrate that Darryl Borg, 27, had been charged and detained when he had nothing to do with carrying out the hold-up.

In the same sitting, Inspector Taliana charged a 22-year-old man, Roderick Grech, who admitted the charges and was given a suspended jail term.

The inspector said the men were both arraigned due to miscommunication within the police force.

The matter is now the subject of a police board of inquiry set up to establish why Mr Borg had been charged when he was not to blame for the crime.

In an interview with this newspaper, Mr Borg recounted how he had spent two days in prison despairing because he was locked up for something he did not do.