Chief Justice revokes bail

The Criminal Court has ruled that a Valletta man, who last Monday was charged with burgling a 77-year-old woman's house on Sunday morning, should have never been granted bail at that stage.

Costantino Gouder, 25, was granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm10,000.

The following day the Attorney General filed an application in the Criminal Court, asking the court to revoke Mr Gouder's bail.

On evaluating the circumstances of the case, Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano ruled that Mr Gouder should never have been granted bail, at least not at that stage. He noted that Mr Gouder had an addiction problem and had been previously convicted of theft. Apart from that, the person who allegedly was with him during the burglary has not been identified and, therefore, in the circumstances, there were all the ingredients to indicate a "real danger" of tampering with the administration of justice.

In this case, the court ruled, the Magistrates' Court had exercised its discretion in a "manifestly wrong" manner when it granted bail to Mr Gouder.

Attorney General representative Aaron Bugeja and Police Inspectors Geoffrey Azzopardi and Therese Sciberras prosecuted.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Mr Gouder.