The organising committee behind the ill-fated Paqpaqli motor show had shown “incompetence” and “seemingly did not give due weight to the lives of spectators”, an expert involved in the magisterial inquiry concluded.

The inquiry report by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera now forms part of the court records in the police case against 13 people, including a British driver and many of the organisers of the charity show held at Malta International Airport last October. Parts of the 1,700-page inquiry report – which has still to be handed over to the defence lawyers – were seen by this newspaper. The findings map out the health and safety shortcomings that led to the incident, which left 23 people injured, some seriously, after a supercar hurtled into onlookers.

“There was incompetence. The members of the core organising committee did not have the necessary skills and knowhow to draft a safety plan or a risk assessment; they seemed to have forgotten the importance of spectators’ lives,” one of the court experts commented.

He noted that no health and safety plan had been drafted, nor had any risk assessments or contingency plans been designed. The organising committee did not ask for assistance from the Civil Protection Department, and a consultant at Mater Dei’s emergency department testified that “at no point had the department been consulted”.

The Times of Malta filed a Freedom of Information request for a copy of the full report after the Justice Ministry had only allowed a quick glance at it in January. The request was refused, on the grounds that the report “could easily prejudice a fair trial”.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, who is presiding over the case, ordered that all parties be given a full copy of the report, but more than two months have passed and this has not yet been done. The case will continue on October 28.

Read report conclusions here.