Arsonist gets shorter jail term on appeal

A man who was jailed for six years for setting his boat on fire had his jail term reduced by two years on appeal.

Valentine Sciberras had been jailed for six years and interdicted for 10 when the Magistrates' Courts found him guilty of setting his boat on fire, as a result of which other boats were damaged, in Ta' Xbiex on July 23, 2002.

He had also been found guilty of damaging other people's property, simulating an offence, filing a false police report and lying under oath while giving evidence during the magisterial inquiry.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, heard how Mr Sciberras had claimed that, on the night of the incident, he was on his way home from work when he got an anonymous phone call telling him his boat was ablaze.

When he got to the boat he climbed onto the bathing platform and lifted the cover to see a small light burning inside.

As he unzipped the cover there was an explosion and he was thrown overboard, he recounted. He suffered slight injuries.

But experts said the explosion could not have taken place the way Mr Sciberras described it. Moreover, the boat caught fire because of the presence of petrol when the boat ran on diesel. The judge also heard how Mr Sciberras's boat was insured for Lm14,000. The evidence proved Mr Sciberras had torched his boat.

However, on examining Mr Sciberras's grounds of appeal, the judge cleared him of three of the five charges.

Mr Sciberras was cleared of lying under oath because it turned out that he had given evidence before an expert who had not been given specific instructions to take evidence. The expert had wrongly assumed it was his job because he had taken evidence in other magisterial inquiries.

He was also cleared of damaging other people's property and simulating evidence since he had been found guilty under the wrong articles of law.

Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that Mr Sciberras faced a jail term ranging between four and six years. He noted that he could not ignore the serious nature of the crime and that Mr Sciberras had 15 previous convictions. He, therefore, jailed him for four years.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Tonna Lowell prosecuted.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Beppe Fenech Adami represented Mr Sciberras.