A nursing aide at Mater Dei Hospital has been cleared by a court of having stolen a patient’s cash.

Antonio Grech, 52, was prosecuted after a woman claimed that €60 had gone missing from her purse shortly after she had been admitted to hospital in the early hours of September 30, 2019.

The woman told police how she had spotted the accused withdrawing his hand from her bag as she pulled back the curtain around her hospital bed after using the commode.

She said the nursing aide had told her his name was ‘Richard’. She subsequently singling him out during an identification parade at police headquarters.

Grech was charged with theft that was further aggravated by the fact that he was a public officer.

During her testimony, the woman insisted that she had seen the accused’s hand inside her bag, but did not say whether she had actually seen the money in his hand.

The accused himself also testified, recalling how the patient had been admitted while he was working night shift.

After taking some coffee and sandwiches to the woman and her partner, the nursing aide said he had gone back to her bedside after she pressed the buzzer.

The woman asked for a commode, insisting even when the accused suggested that she could make the short trip to the toilet nearby.

The patient also wanted the bedside curtains to be drawn, but the nursing aide explained that he was under strict orders not to do so, except when the patient was being examined by a doctor.

As he went to seek the assistance of a female nurse, the patient had allegedly threatened to report the matter. The woman’s partner had witnessed the whole episode, the accused said.

When analyzing the evidence, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit observed that the prosecution had failed to summon the woman’s partner and colleagues of the accused to testify.

The alleged victim’s version was “rather inconsistent and sometimes confused,” unlike the accused’s account that was “clear and unequivocal”, observed the court.

Moreover, the prosecution had not produced sufficient evidence to give a clear picture of what had actually taken place, said the court, concluding that doubt was to favour the accused who was, thus, acquitted.

Lawyer Ishmael Psaila was defence counsel.