Tourist jailed 18 months after injuring police officers
The 20-year-old also tried bribing a police officer to avoid arrest
A 20-year-old Dutch man has been charged with slightly injuring two police officers and attempting to bribe a third after an early-morning altercation in Paceville that began with an argument with a bouncer.
Marnix Fonke was arraigned before Magistrate Monica Vella on Friday. He entered the courtroom with a black eye.
Police inspectors Pierguido Saliba and Christian Xuereb charged him with insulting, threatening or injuring police constables Alessia Bonello and Dillon Theuma while they were carrying out their duties, violently resisting them, and causing them slight injuries, as certified by a doctor.
He was also accused of attempting to bribe a third officer, PC Kersten Mizzi, to induce him to fail in his duties.
Fonke faced a total of nine charges, which also included disobeying lawful police orders, threatening the two constables, breaching the public peace, and being drunk in a public place to the extent that he was unable to take care of himself.
The charges relate to an incident in St George's Street, Paceville, between 2.45am and 3am on Thursday.
Fonke had just been escorted out of a nightclub when he began threatening a security official. The two police officers intervened to try and de-escalate the situation, but Fonke instead grabbed Bonello by her shirt and threw her to the ground.
Police immediately proceeded with the arrest, but Fonke resisted violently, injuring Theuma too.
Once the situation was brought under control, he was informed of his arrest and taken to the St Julian’s police station. Police offered medical help for his visible injuries, but he refused.
While at the police station, Fonke offered money to a police officer to avoid arrest. The police officer did not accept the offer and filed a report on this matter.
He pleaded guilty to the charges.
In determining the sentence, the court acknowledged that the accused cooperated with police, admitted to the charges early, and held a clean criminal record.
Because of this, the court sentenced Fonke to an 18-month prison term and a €7,500 fine.