Legal procurator guilty of filing false report to the police

Juanita Fenech, 49, a legal procurator from Attard, was today found guilty of filing a false police report in which she accused her husband Mario of  harassing her.

Magistrate Anthony Vella said that the case was the result of a difficult and acrimonious separation that unfortunately developed into a situation where ordinary reports were turned into “colossal battles”.

He found Ms Fenech guilty of filing a false police report and placed her on probation for three years and also gave her a temporary general interdiction, which means that she is at risk of losing her warrant as a legal procurator.

Magistrate Vella noted how Ms Fenech had even accused Police Inspector Elton Taliana of misconduct during the investigations and said that she was forced to sign a police statement admitting to filing a false report.

The magistrate said that he was perplexed by her behaviour because someone who was genuinely afraid of her husband would not file a report and then admit it was false even in the fact of police pressure unless of course it was a false report to begin with.

The magistrate said that it was evident that she had filed the report to cause harm to her former husband, something which unfortunately in separation proceedings are all too common. He said that no one came out as winner as everyone ended up losing.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Kathleen Grima appeared for Mr Fenech while lawyer Joe Giglio appeared for Ms Fenech.