A self-confessed drug addict who assaulted and tried to rob an 81-year-old man had been jailed for just over five years after a court found that he had wasted several opportunities to get his life back on track.

Simon Borg, 33, was accused of attempted theft aggravated by violence and  with having slightly injured the victim last October in Zerafa Street, Marsa.

He was further charged with having committed the crime during the operative period of a suspended sentence, breaching bail and relapsing.

The 81-year old man had been chatting to an elderly friend when something brushing against his back trouser pocket.

He turned around and spotted Mr Borg, who pushed him to the ground. He landed face down beneath the pavement.

As he struggled back to his feet, blood streaming from a cut above his eye, the elderly man had seen Mr Borg as though about to strike him when somebody behind him suddenly halted him in his tracks.

“Why pick on that man? Strike me not him. He’s a poor old man,” the voice had called out, startling Mr Borg who was ordered to sit down and not move.

That voice had belonged to a stranger who had been driving by and had stopped to help. He was never identified.

Mr Borg was arrested by a police patrol which was quickly on the scene. 

Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia observed that Mr Borg had confessed to the police about having consumed synthetic drugs and pills some time before the incident.

He told the police that he never had any intention of hurting or robbing the old man and had no recollection of the whole episode since he had been ‘out of his senses’ at the time.

When delivering judgment, the court gave a detailed explanation of what constituted ‘pickpocketing’, pointing out that this offence did not require many preparatory acts.

Normally, the accused would not even have a particular victim in mind but acted on the spur of the moment, pouncing upon some individual whom he happened to spot in a public place and who seemed likely to be carrying cash and appeared vulnerable, the court observed.

Success depended on “the agility of the thief to rob his victim in a few seconds without giving the latter the chance to realize and react, before making his escape,” the court went on.

In this case, the elderly man had been carrying a wallet containing some €350 in cash and the attempted theft had been thwarted by the simple fact that the accused had not been nimble enough in pulling the wallet out of the victim’s pocket, the court observed.

There was no evidence of any intention other than that of robbing his victim, said the court, adding that the failure to commit the theft was totally irrelevant.

Moreover, contrary to what had been argued by the defence lawyer, the accused had not freely chosen not to leave the scene but had been made to stay out of fear of the stranger who had thwarted his attempt.

When meting out punishment, the court observed that the accused had six past convictions, two of which related to 13 instances of aggravated theft, and had wasted several opportunities for reform given by the courts.

His probation officer, who had been following him since 2010, had testified as to how the accused had suddenly vanished from a shelter last August, merely days before he was due to enter rehabilitation.

In the light of all evidence, the court declared Mr Borg guilty and condemned him to five and a half years imprisonment, also ordering the confiscation of a bail bond of €6,000.

Inspector Robert Vella prosecuted.