A judge has fined the court administration €250 after finding it in contempt when it ignored an order to produce transcripts of a sitting so that the court could rule on a man’s request for bail.

The incident happened last week when Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera was considering a request for bail filed by a man who stands charged with raping his ex-partner when she went to his apartment to collect her engagement ring after their break-up.

The man, a 27-year-old Norwegian i-gaming employee whose name cannot be published by court order, is denying the charges.

The man was refused bail when he was first arraigned on April 29. The woman testified in detail before Magistrate Lara Lanfranco during the first hearing of the compilation of evidence two weeks later. The magistrate, however, again refused his request to be released on bail.

The man’s lawyers, Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Adreana Zammit filed an application before the superior courts requesting bail for their client now that the prosecution’s main witness had testified and her version was confirmed on oath in court.

When the application was called by Madam Justice Scerri Herrera on Monday, the court ruled that the bail hearing could not be heard before the court was given a transcript of the alleged victim’s testimony.

The judge put off the hearing to Thursday, ordering that the court administration be notified that the transcripts were required for the bail hearing. However, when the case was called, the judge was told that no transcripts had been received.

This angered Madam Justice Scerri Herrera who said this behaviour was “unacceptable” and “tantamount to contempt of court”. She said she was not in a position to consider the application “due to these administrative hiccups which are unacceptable for the administration of justice”.

She fined the Registrar of the Criminal Courts €250 for contempt of court. 

“The court also states that this lack of cooperation between the administration of the courts and the criminal court is causing severe disturbance to the administration of justice and thus orders that this decree is notified to the Minister of Justice immediately,” the judge ruled.  

She put off the case to Monday for the third attempt at a bail hearing so that the defendant may be granted bail.

All audio recordings of court sittings are transcribed and inserted into the case file. The issue of transcripts of court sittings has been a recurring problem in court in recent years. Delays in transcribing testimony have caused serious administrative shortcomings breaching defendants’ fundamental rights.  Sources said the court administration knew of the issue and was promising to tackle it by engaging more staff for the purpose. Court Service Agency CEO Eunice Grech Fiorini has repeatedly come under fire over the lack of resources in court.