A Civil Protection Department worker has been charged with making bomb threats that disrupted the Gozo Channel ferry service on Saturday. 

Marvin Tabone, 43, pleaded not guilty to a series of charges including causing fear of violence, misuse of electronic communications equipment and wilfully and falsely reporting the commission of a crime. 

He also denied committing a crime he was duty-bound to prevent. 

Tabone stands accused of being behind a bomb threat made on Saturday afternoon, less than one day after a similar threat brought the Gozo ferry to a halt for several hours on Friday evening. 

Anti-terrorism police received a call from the Qawra police district about phone threats made by a male caller to Gozo Channel at around 3pm on Saturday. 

'Great panic'

Those calls triggered panic and commotion on either side of the channel, at Ċirkewwa and Mġarr. 

One of the prosecuting officers who was on duty on Saturday, said that the calls sparked “great panic.” 

Among the passengers waiting to board the ferries were tourists and patients heading back home after chemotherapy sessions at Mater Dei Hospital, he explained.  

“I prayed to God that nothing else happened, because how could the corps manage that too!” recalled the inspector. 

The bomb scare also negatively impacted Gozitan businesses on the busy Saturday night. 

Police managed to trace the phone number used by the caller, which  led them to Tabone. 

Within two and a half hours of the call, police turned up at his Mqabba home.

Tabone was not home, but police spotted him exiting the church where he had just attended his son’s confirmation.

Tabone was initially “in a state of shock" but he handed over his mobile to the police, along with instructions for how to unlock it. 

He was released and allowed to attend his son’s confirmation dinner. 

When investigators checked Tabone’s mobile, their original suspicion turned into a reasonable suspicion that he was behind the crime. However, when his home was searched later that evening under a magisterial warrant, the phone from which the threatening calls were made was not found.

Police only came across the device’s empty box at Tabone’s home. 

'It's not me'

A request for bail was objected to in light of that fact as well as the fact that civilian witnesses were still to testify.

Defence lawyer Franco Debono rebutted that although this case triggered alarm, the defendant was not pleading guilty. 

“He cannot register an admission because he saying ‘it’s not me.’”

There was not a shred of evidence linking the defendant to those calls, argued Debono. He said his client was a family man with a stable job and an almost untainted record sheet. 

After hearing submissions the court, presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, concluded that there was no real fear that could not be neutralized by adequate bail conditions. 

Tabone was granted bail under a deposit of €3,000, a personal guarantee of €3,000, signing the bail book three times weekly and under strict orders not to approach prosecution witnesses, particularly those named in the bail decree. 

Inspectors Zachary Zammit, Mohammed Shurrab, Keith Xerri and Italo Mizzi prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Adreana Zammit were defence counsel.