A teenage migrant, reported missing from the Hal Far Tent Village last month, was jailed for six months, hours after having broken into a Marsa grocery store on Wednesday night.

The 17-year old Libyan national had been arrested by some fast-acting policemen from the Hamrun police station who were patrolling the streets of Marsa at around 2am when they spotted a metal shutter at a grocery shop that seemed to have been forced open. 

When they looked closer they saw lights on inside the shop, while shattered glass and drops of blood were visible close to the entrance. 

Peeping inside, the officers glimpsed a hooded figure trying to flee to the back of the shop.

The suspect thief turned out to be a teenage migrant who had been reported missing at the detention centre in March, before the pandemic outbreak, and had apparently been living with friends at St Venera.

A personal search yielded a plastic bag bearing some petty change, totalling €1.30, as well as a stolen mobile phone. 

Merely hours after his arrest, the suspect pleaded guilty to the aggravated theft as well as to wilfully damaging third party property.

The court, presided over by magistrate Charmaine Galea, declared him guilty upon his own admission and condemned him to a six-month jail term. 

Inspector Stacy Attard prosecuted.