A man who first admitted to filing a false report of animal cruelty only to retract it when the culprit he identified turned out to be the right one was yesterday accused of major inconsistencies in his original version.

The issue is a curious side story to the nasty cruelty case of Star, a mixed-breed dog who was discovered buried alive near Għar Ħasan in Birżebbuġa on May 19 after being shot in the head.

Carmel Sacco, 45, of Kirkop first admitted to filing a false police report accusing 44-year-old Alfred Vella, who owns the field next to his in Birżebbuġa, of shooting the dog. Eventually, during police investigations, he changed his version and admitted that he only made the claim to damage Mr Vella, given their long-standing argument over planning permits.

It later emerged that Mr Vella had in fact shot the dog, that succumbed to the injuries, and was sentenced for three months in jail and fined €10,000 – a sentence he has appealed. Mr Sacco then changed tack and protested his own arraignment for filing a false report.

However, Police Inspector Ramon Mercieca yesterday insisted that Mr Sacco’s original story was in fact a false report and pointed out a number of inconsistencies to sustain his argument.

For instance, he had highlighted that while in his original version Mr Sacco had said he saw his neighbour shoot the dog at about 9 a.m. and then drag it a distance of about 150 metres to under a tree, the animal had in fact been shot at 7 p.m., according to Mr Vella.

Moreover, while Mr Sacco said he heard a gunshot, it could not have been the case because Mr Vella had used a gun with a home-made silencer, which muffled the weapon’s sound when fired.

The officer also referred to Mr Sacco’s admission that he had lied in the original version to get back at Mr Vella over their dispute.

During cross examination, defence lawyer Franco Debono pointed out that the police officer had investigated Mr Sacco over the animal cruelty case itself when Mr Sacco had done his utmost to save the dog by alerting the authorities.

The inspector replied that, at the time, given the discrepancies, he thought Mr Sacco was involved in the shooting of the dog and, so, the investigation took that direction.

He also had a report by a woman who said she had seen Mr Sacco with a dog but that was discarded, the officer said.

Mr Vella testified that he thought the dog was dead before he buried it in the shallow grave where it was found about 20 hours later. He said the dog had belonged to his mother-in-law for 11 years and he had it for just a hour-and-a-half before he shot it.

The case continues.

Lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran also appeared for Mr Sacco.