Magistrate denies claims by columnist

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera yesterday categorically denied allegations levelled at her by columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, as she testified in a defamation case that has become a cause célèbre.

The magistrate later filed a police report claiming that Ms Caruana Galizia had insulted her outside the court room after the hearing ended, by using a swear word and calling her a liar.

Ms Caruana Galizia stands charged with defaming the magistrate in a series of blog entries on her website. Confidently taking the witness stand, Magistrate Scerri Herrera calmly read from copies of every blog that Ms Caruana Galizia had written about her, several of the pages that she was holding highlighted with florescent markers.

The court room was deadly silent as she described how she could not walk down the street without someone asking her if she had seen the latest blog about her.

She said she felt as if she were being followed because every time she went to someone's house, the fact would be mentioned on the website.

She said that in one particular blog, Ms Caruana Galizia had claimed that she threw parties where "talcum powder" was thrown around and the magistrate understood this to mean drugs.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera said she never used drugs and had never been to a party where drugs were used or where a person who had convictions for drugs was present.

She detailed the columnist's insults: she had been called a bitch and compared to the back of a bus, described as a sow and called fat.

Referring to an allegation that she favoured the Labour Party, Magistrate Scerri Herrera said that in the last three years, most of the libel suits that had come before her had been decided in favour of the Nationalist Party and the few that were decided in favour of Labour, the PN did not appeal.

The magistrate presented a large number of photos from her 45th birthday party which had featured heavily on Ms Caruana Galizia's website.

She said the photos had been taken from her daughter's Facebook account and that there were a number of both Nationalist and Labour MPs present but Ms Caruana Galizia failed to give the whole picture.

Moving on to parties that she herself had organised, she said Ms Caruana Galizia had tried to throw a bad light on them when, in fact, they were held for charity and attended by members of the judiciary and by lawyers.

Two libel cases involving the columnist were meant to have been heard in front of her, but Ms Caruana Galizia declared she was going to petition the Chief Justice to remove her from the cases. There was no such petition, she said, presenting a letter from the Chief Justice's Office to back her up.

At this point Ms Caruana Galizia got up, walked over to her husband and told him that what the magistrate said was just not true.

The magistrate also referred to allegations that she had made a property deal together with a lawyer.

She denied it and said she had declared all her assets to the Commission for the Administration of Justice and was found to have done no wrong.

The only property she owned was a flat which she bought 20 years ago.

She added that the columnist had also associated her with corruption and with the disgraced former Chief Justice Noel Arrigo. She denied having done anything corrupt and said she did not want to be associated with Dr Arrigo.

At the beginning of the hearing, presiding Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona dismissed requests that had been made by the defence counsel and by the prosecution.

The defence had held that since Magistrate Scerri Herrera was a public person she could not be represented by a private lawyer.

They also held that since there was another case against her instituted by the magistrate's partner, Robert Musumeci, Ms Caruana Galizia could not be tried twice for the same crime.

The prosecution had re-quested that a protection order be issued to prevent the columnist from writing any more articles about the magistrate.

All three requests were denied.

The case continues, with the next hearing scheduled for April 12.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Ms Caruana Galizia.