A childcare teacher who played a prank call on a colleague by allegedly calling in a fake bomb threat has been charged in court.

Elain-Rose Vella, 28 from Naxxar, pleaded not guilty to lodging a false bomb threat on December 2, 2024, after hearing on the news that other schools had been receiving bomb threats. 

Police Inspector James Mallia said that, on the day, police received information about a series of bomb threats in schools which were sent by email. 

There was also a report about a threat, made over the phone, to a Żebbuġ childcare centre.

Mallia ordered the school to be evacuated when he arrived on the scene, but was later told that a teacher had approached a police constable and told him that she had been trying to prank a colleague and it had gotten out of hand. 

She was summoned to appear in court before Magistrate Giannella Camilleri Busuttil.

Inspectors James Mallia and Zachary Zammit prosecuted.

Defence lawyers Franco Debono and Adreana Zammit represented the accused