Man accused of assault acquitted due to insufficient evidence

A 39-year-old man was acquitted by a court after it ruled that there was not enough evidence to find him guilty of fracturing another man’s shoulder.

Charlton Cassar from Munxar was accused of grievously injuring his tenant as well of disturbing the peace.

The case dates back to 2 October 2024 when the man and his partner were involved in a fight with their tenant.

The police had been called to assist on Triq il-Puniċi in Munxar by the accused’s partner, who informed them that they had been involved in a fight with their tenant, who allegedly fled the scene.

The officers instructed them to go to hospital to get their injuries certified and then return to Victoria police station to file their report.

While the police were still on site, an ambulance stopped by and a nurse informed the officers that they had a patient, who claimed that he had been assaulted. The patient turned out to be the tenant and his injuries were eventually certified as grievous.

The couple’s injuries were certified as slight injuries.

The court heard how the argument, which allegedly involved a metal rod and a piece of wood, first started inside the common area of the block of apartments and spilled over to the street, where things took a violent turn.

Cassar's partner eventually signed a waiver declaring that she did not want to take any criminal action against the tenant and did not testify against her partner.

The tenant, who faced separate criminal proceedings, chose not to testify in order not to incriminate himself.

The court, in its considerations, observed that the evidence brought forward consisted of the testimony by superintendent Bernard Charles Spiteri and sergeant David Borg Grima, who testified on the reports filed. However, this constituted hearsay evidence, the court held.

It also observed that the metal rod and wood which were allegedly used in the incident were never presented in court, neither was a photograph of the makeshift weapons brought forward despite the police having seized the items.

Three constables who reported at the scene arrived at a time when things had already calmed down and did not witness any fighting. Therefore, their testimony could not shed light on the incident.

It was also observed that the investigation did not look into any CCTV footage or whether there were any eyewitnesses who had been present during the fight.

During the criminal proceedings, inspector Keith Xerri exhibited footage which had been published by Lovin Malta. However, the court observed that the footage focused on beginning of the fight, then the camera panned away and returned only towards the end. In the footage the tenant can be seen holding the piece of wood which ends up in the hands of the accused.

The police did not even identify the people whose voices can be heard in the footage, and the only information on that video came from the testimony of a police constable who downloaded the video from Lovin Malta’s Facebook page and placed it on a CD.

It observed that the police did not summon anyone from Lovin Malta to testify about the video’s authenticity and whether it had been edited or not, while fully respecting the news platform’s sources.

The court held that this also created an issue of whether the evidence was admissible in court.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Jean Paul Grech, acquitted the man of having grievously injured the tenant and declared the two other charges as extinguished since the police did not serve the charges upon the accused within three months and therefore he could no longer be prosecuted for having breached the repose of the inhabitants and public peace.

AG lawyer Kenneth Camilleri prosecuted together with Superintendent Bernard Charles Spiteri.