A 19-year-old man suspected of setting fire to four fields Qormi went to the police station asking if anybody had reported him, a court heard on Friday.
Sebastian Chircop appeared in front of Magistrate Nadine Lia accused of arson, with police saying that, during interrogation, they recognised his wristwatch from CCTV submitted in one of the police reports.
He is pleading not guilty to the charges.
Police Inspector James Mallia testified that between June 18 and 30, the Qormi police station received four reports of fields in the Tal-Ħlas and Wied is-Sewda area being set on fire.
It later resulted that the four fields had been burnt up on the same day, but that two of the owners had been overseas and not able to file a report in person immediately, although they had been informed of the incident by their neighbours.
One of the landowners had submitted CCTV footage, with Mallia recognising Sebastian Chircop in the clip, telling the court that he had seen him at the police station from time to time.
After fetching him for questioning, Mallia said he informed the accused of the evidence in hand as well as of his rights, and questioning continued within the presence of legal aid lawyer Martin Farrugia.
During this time, Chircop allegedly admitted to setting the fields on fire. “He told me he didn’t feel pleasure in doing it exactly, but that he felt that he had to continue setting things on fire,” Mallia said.
“While taking his statement I also noticed that he was wearing his watch very tightly and higher up on his arm than typical and from the footage of the accused riding his bicycle away from the arson site, I determined that it was the same watch,” he added.
The watch was taken away as evidence.
Before they were burnt, the fields in question had just been freshly harvested from wheat intended for animal feed and had been stacked into haybales that were being stored on site.
These, along with some wooden pallets were destroyed in the fire.
A police constable, who testified that she had taken reports of the fires, said that the accused was known to her because he sometimes came to the police station of his own volition.
“I saw him at the police station, he used to sit there sometimes and ask if there were any reports being filed about him, we didn’t really suspect him of anything at the time,” she said.
Legal Aid Lawyer Martin Farrugia requested that the court allow a psychiatrist to testify about the accused’s mental state at the next sitting, saying that he was currently receiving treatment and could have possibly been in an altered mental state at the time.
The case will continue in April.