A bird trapper who pleaded guilty to assaulting a dog walker and leaving him with grievous facial injuries was handed a suspended sentence on Friday.
David Galea was sentenced to a two-year jail term suspended for four years and issued with a three-year restraining order against the victim, whom he admitted to violently assaulting earlier this month in an incident caught on camera.
The 42-year-old Ġżira resident, a grocer, was charged with causing grievous bodily harm and insulting and threatening behaviour against the dog walker in an incident that occurred on the morning of January 10.
Footage of the incident released earlier this week by the Malta Ranger unit (MRU) showed Galea, whose face is blurred in the video, dressed in camouflage gear walking aggressively towards the victim, shouting: “Why do you record me”.
The victim barely had time to respond, “You know there’s people coming”, before the camera was sent hurtling downwards, capturing nothing but landscape as the sounds of a struggle and people shouting can be heard off-screen.
Galea could then be heard saying, “Go tell him police” and “Call the police”, before giving the dog walker his name and storming off.
The victim subsequently had to seek medical attention, when a computerised tomography (CT) scan revealed he had sustained fractures in the bones of his face during the incident, the MRU said in a Facebook post accompanying the video earlier on Monday night.
The rangers said the victim had started filming after Galea started behaving aggressively, adding he had been reported by the unit for illegal trapping back in December before later being caught by the police.
The police’s Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) is expected to issue separate charges against Galea in regard to the alleged illegal trapping activities.
Prosecuting Attorney Martina Muscat noted Galea’s cooperation with police including admitting his guilt early in the proceedings.
The suspended sentence was agreed by the prosecution and defence, with magistrate Magistrate Jean Paul Gatt accepting the proposed terms.
Lawyer Shaun Zammit appeared for the defence.
Speaking to Times of Malta after the sentencing, the MRU said it was "happy to see that the aggressor was arrested and brought to Court and sentenced within two weeks," adding it was receiving "lots of reports by persons who get intimidated when out walking in the courtside, many thinking that it's useless to report and that nothing would happen if they did."
The rangers said it hoped the sentencing would serve as encouragement for members of the public to report such incidents, and thanked the police for their work on the case.
This is not Galea’s first court appearance on allegations of causing injury; in 2015, he denied injuring a Dutch teenager who suffered shotgun wounds to his leg while birdwatching.
He was later found not guilty of the incident involving the 16-year-old.