Four security officers, a carer and a nurse will be charged in court with the involuntary homicide of Carmelo Fino who had disappeared from St Vincent de Paul home last year. 

Police sources told Times of Malta that charges have been filed against the employees who were summoned to appear in court in July 2024. They will be charged with involuntary homicide and with causing Fino harm. 

They had been suspended on half pay upon the instructions of the Public Service Commission following the disappearance of the elderly resident.

Fino, 83, had wandered out of the care home in the middle of the night on June 28 2023 and was found dead a couple of weeks later.

CCTV footage showed him walking towards the main gate, then towards the guard room and out of the gate. Hospital regulations oblige night security staff to close the main gate between 11pm and 7am.

CCTV footage showed the gate was left open for most of that night.

The six people who will be charged in court over his disappearance had been suspended after an inquiry found they allegedly failed to follow procedures.

The nurse - Rhys Xuereb - had demanded a fresh inquiry into the case and was later reinstated in a different workplace. 

According to the inquiry by retired judge Geoffrey Valenzia, the security officers allegedly left the main gate to the facility open and unguarded while the carers and the nurse did not provide a handover that would have proven whether they had carried out routine checks on residents through the night.

Their “negligence” in properly reporting the disappearance “misled all those who were involved in the search” allowing the man to wander far from the facility.

The inquiry concluded, among other things, that the incident occurred because basic practices that should have been followed by staff who were responsible for the care of vulnerable and senior citizens were neglected.