Woman fined, handed suspended sentence for threatening judge

A woman was handed a one-year jail term, suspended for four years, and fined €1,000 for threatening Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera and harassing her in the course of her work last year.

In delivering judgment, Magistrate Franco Agius also issued a restraining order barring Amanda Dimech from approaching the judge or her family for a period of three years.

Dimech, a 37-year-old Jobsplus employee from Għaxaq, had admitted to insulting and threatening the judge and harassing her in the course of her work.

She was also charged with harassing and insulting legal procurator Kimberley Bickle and misusing electronic equipment. A restraining order was also issued to protect Bickle.

Dimech initially denied the charges before changing her plea to guilty.

 In March this year, the judge took the witness stand and explained that she had decided to file a criminal complaint against the woman over her Facebook posts, “not for herself but for other members of the judiciary".

The judge said she never met or saw Dimech during the course of her duties as a judge, but legal procurator Kimberley Bickle had informed her about posts uploaded on Facebook by the accused.

These were related to proceedings before the Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction, details of which have been banned from publication by court order. Bickle was appointed in those proceedings by Scerri Herrera.

Issues arose between Bickle and Dimech, who sent several emails to the legal procurator. Bickle flagged the issues to the judge.

On December 2, in a Facebook post on the page 'Are you being served?' Dimech criticised Scerri Herrera’s work and the court’s work.

The judge read out the post and stated she felt insulted by what had been written.

The judge said she had sent for Bickle and asked her to tell Dimech to refrain from posting on social media. She was eventually informed that Dimech’s mother reported her to the justice ministry, the Commissioner for Older Persons, and the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability.

A second post was published on Facebook by Dimech in which she said: “Today we enjoyed Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s incompetence from a close distance. In December, I had written that we were disappointed with how she was treating my father. Unfortunately, today she confirmed she has no interest in my father’s health, but she is interested in the money he has in his bank. Shame on you. Well done to leader Alex Borg and the Nationalist Party for voting her [nomination down] in Parliament. The people deserve better than this.”

Madam Justice Scerri Herrera said that what the woman had written was untrue and she felt reviled.

The judge said she informed Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti about the posts and that she intended to file a police report.

The chief justice commended her for filing the report against claims undermining her work.

She also informed Court Services Agency CEO Vanessa Grech, who, in turn, filed a criminal complaint at the Valletta police station on her behalf.

At the end of her testimony, Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera said: “It cannot be that those who do not agree with a judge’s decision turn into keyboard warriors and launch attacks against a judge. Members of the judiciary need serenity to carry out their work… I did not file the report for myself, but for all the members of the bench who should be protected against such behaviour.”

Lawyers Matthew Xuereb and Alex Scerri Herrera appeared for the judge. Defence lawyer Axl Camilleri represented the accused