An excavation contractor involved in the building collapse that killed Miriam Pace is seeking to block a decision releasing the site of the fatality to the developers, depriving jurors at his trial from a first-hand view of the area.

Ludwig Dimech, the 40-year-old contractor, is insisting that releasing the site would irremediably prejudice his defence.

Dimech is currently awaiting trial alongside builder Nicholas Spiteri, for having allegedly caused the death of the mother-of-two who was buried under the rubble of her Ħamrun home. The collapse was caused during the excavation phase on a large-scale construction project next door.

Since that fatal incident on March 2, 2020, two architects, Roderick Camilleri and Anthony Mangion, have been found guilty of involuntary homicide, handed a suspended sentence and ordered to carry out between them 880 hours of community work.

While Camilleri and Mangion opted to have their case decided by a Magistrates’ Court, Dimech and Spiteri chose to be judged by the Criminal Court in a trial by jury. However, those proceedings which are at a very advanced pre-trial stage, now hang in the balance.

The reason for this stems from a decision by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, who is to preside over the upcoming trial, which effectively returned the site in Abela Scolaro Street to the developers, paving the way for construction works to go ahead.

MCZMC Developers Ltd, together with the heirs of Miriam Pace, had filed a joint application before the Criminal Court in January requesting the judge to order the release of the construction site and its neighbouring properties, including the remains of the Pace home, which had been seized during the magisterial inquiry following the collapse.

That request was upheld after a court expert was appointed to preserve video footage of the site after it was cleared of overgrown grass which accumulated over the past three years.

‘A person's life, unlike a construction site, is priceless’

But the contractor involved in the excavation works on that fateful afternoon has now cried foul.

Dimech has taken his grievances before the Constitutional Courts, seeking urgent intervention to suspend the criminal proceedings as well as the judge’s decree releasing the Ħamrun site.

That decree, dated March 1, meant the developers could now proceed with their project despite the fact the contractor and the builder are still awaiting trial.

In his sworn application filed before the Civil Court, Dimech’s lawyers explained he was not even served notice of the developers’ request for the release of the site and had thus missed the opportunity of registering his objection.

The outcome of that request had now placed Dimech in a “precarious position,” that is likely to result in “irreversible harm and prejudice to [his] life”.

Irreversible harm and prejudice to Dimech's life

And as the court knew only too well, “a person’s life, unlike a construction site, was priceless”, argued the lawyers.

‘An avoidable injustice’

During a trial by jury, the on-site inspection of a crime scene constitutes “a vital exercise”, which enables jurors to grasp a better understanding of the dynamics of the case through their personal “visual analysis”.

In this case, once the site has been released to the developers, jurors at Dimech’s trial will be precluded from holding an on-site inspection to “see with their own eyes”, thus better understanding what may have happened and what effectively led to Pace’s death.

Denying jurors this possibility would result in “an avoidable injustice” to the accused.

Should the Criminal Court’s decision stand, the only way the jurors are to evaluate the area of the collapse will be through video footage recorded by a court-appointed expert. The expert admitted in court he was not in a position to “accurately film” the site. However, the judge overruled the issue flagged by the expert.

Faced with this, Dimech’s lawyers are now requesting the Constitutional Court to declare that the contractor’s right to a fair hearing had been breached since he will be denied the possibility of having the best defence at his criminal trial.

Dimech is also seeking liquidation of damages payable by the police commissioner, the state advocate and the attorney general as respondents in the case filed earlier this month.

Following upon his initial requests, Dimech is now seeking to obtain an interim measure to suspend the criminal proceedings in his regard as well as to suspend the effects of Judge Scerri Herrera’s decree.

Unless that decree was suspended, the development would likely be completed by the time this case was concluded and then Dimech would have no effective remedy should this court decide that his fundamental right to a fair hearing had been breached, his lawyers argued.

The criminal case might have a “significant impact” on Dimech’s life and any decision affecting that case may result in “irreversible harm and prejudice”.

During a first hearing of the case on Friday, they also presented a note referring to claims made by geologist Peter Gatt in a recent television interview.

Gatt voiced doubts about changes effected to the geological map of the island and pinpointed the area of Ħamrun where the Pace tragedy took place.

Lawyers Michael Sciriha, Roberto Montalto and Roberto Spiteri are assisting Dimech.