Woman who threatened daughter's foster parents must be retried
Appeals court quashes original conviction and sends case back to magistrates
A woman who admitted to threatening and insulting foster parents looking after her daughter must be retried, a court of appeal has ruled.
Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera concluded that the woman was not formally informed about the legal consequences of entering a guilty plea, and the one-year prison term she was sentenced to was therefore null and without effect.
It was the second conviction the judge repealed on such grounds on Wednesday.
The woman was first arraigned and charged with breaching a protection order issued against her daughter’s foster parents as well as insulting and threatening them on December 30, 2020 at Aġenzija Appoġġ.
Following her admission in January 2024, she was sentenced to one year imprisonment and the court issued a five-year protection order in favour of the foster parents.
She appealed the decision and raised several distinct arguments to make her case.
She said had a drug problem and suffered from mental health issues, that she was denied access to her daughter and was also angered by the foster parents’ attempt to adopt her daughter.
Her lawyer also argued that the woman had entered a guilty plea in a panic.
The Court of Criminal Appeal observed that according to the Criminal Code, the court is obliged to solemnly inform the accused of the consequences when entering a guilty plea. From the minutes and records of the case, it did not emerge that the woman was formally informed about the legal consequences of the plea, and declared the sentence null and without effect.
It abstained from taking cognisance of the other grievances brought forward by the appellant and sent the case back to the Court of Magistrates placing the woman in the same position as she was when the June sitting was held.
Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera presided over the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Lawyer Nicholas Mifsud appeared for the woman.