A hunter has had his conviction for killing a protected bird overturned on appeal after a judge dismissed video evidence allegedly showing him commit the crime. 

Last July, 28-year-old Brandon Said was arraigned after footage taken by BirdLife Malta showed him picking up an injured bird and then putting it to his mouth. Activists had claimed the bird was a protected Eurasian Collared-dove and that he had used his mouth to kill it. 

The incident happened on April 29, 2022, during the spring hunting season. 

The footage was used to convict the Gozitan hunter, with Magistrate Leonard Caruana declaring that the video evidence was unequivocal. 

Said was found guilty and barred from hunting for two years, as well as having his gun confiscated and fined €1,200. 

However, a judgement handed down by Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera on Thursday found that the video evidence on which the case hinged was not properly substantiated during proceedings. 

The BirdLife volunteer who had shot the video had never been asked to testify that the footage being exhibited in court was the same one given to the police as evidence.

Additionally, the person who filmed the incident as well as her companion were unable to identify the accused as the person who picked up the bird in the footage and appeared to kill it. 

Scerri Herrera also observed that the appellant is right to claim there is no evidence as to what kind of bird had been killed because the footage is not admissible and no carcass had been exhibited as evidence. 

“The court does not feel that the prosecution has proven its case to the level required by the law, that is beyond reasonable doubt,” the judgement reads. 

“The witness who testified on behalf of BirdLife based his assessment solely on the footage that was allegedly handed to him in the absence of the observance of the chain of evidence and this footage has been declared as having no value and is evidence on which the court cannot rest.” 

Scerri acquitted Said of all charges and revoked the first sentence, overturning the ban on his hunting license. 

The hunter was represented in court by Deborah Camilleri, who is the wife of Clint Camilleri, the minister responsible for hunting, planning and Gozo.