The devastated daughter of a 77-year-old woman killed in a hit-and-run crash has slammed Malta’s “failed” judicial system over the “insulting” punishment handed to her mother’s killer.

Mel Spiteri walked away with a one-year driving ban and a two-year suspended sentence, nine years after mowing down British tourist Elizabeth Tuknutt Whilems and leaving the scene of the incident.

The elderly woman’s only daughter, Liz Gibson, said it had been excruciating to wait so long for an outcome and that Malta’s judicial services should be ashamed at the sentence.

“I’ve been told I had to be patient, I have to allow the case to go through the system and that ‘this is just how it is in Malta’,” she told Times of Malta.

“We put our trust in Malta’s judicial process and it failed us.”

She said her only consolation was that her father, Maurice, who witnessed the horrific incident, did not live long enough to have to see the injustice.

The Sunderland couple were crossing the road from the seaside towards Qawra Palace Hotel on 26 June 2011 when a Mitsubishi FTO, driven by then 18-year-old Spiteri, came hurtling down the road at a speed of over 100km/hr.

The car struck Wilhelms, sending her vaulting into the air and landing several metres away.

Spiteri was convicted and subsequently sentenced to a two-year effective jail term in 2014, however this judgment was thrown out on a technicality and the case was subsequently re-tried.

Last week, Magistrate Rachel Montebello once again found him guilty of involuntary homicide, but concluded that justice could be served without extreme punishment, sentencing Spiteri to a 24-month jail term suspended for three years.

The court found he was driving at a “condemnable speed”, had later pretended his car had been stolen and made no attempt to apologise to the victim’s family.

Yet it observed the incident was “isolated” and “unfortunate” and brought about “by the folly of youth”.

Gibson said no words could describe how she was feeling after the judgment.

“Nine years ago we were informed that being accused of involuntary manslaughter and being found guilty came with a custodial sentence. That wasn’t true,” she said.

“The driver’s reckless and manifestly dangerous driving was found to be the sole cause of death. It transpires that he also fabricated traces of the crime and pretended that the car had been stolen to shift the blame off himself.

“However, his probation officer states that he has projects for the future. So do my sons, but their devoted grandmother isn’t here to share in their futures. But that should be okay, we’ll chalk it up to ‘the folly of youth’. How insulting!”

She said over the course of almost a decade, she had raised the issue with the British Consulate, her local MP, Malta’s attorney general and both the former and current prime ministers but that nothing was done to expedite justice.

Her father died nine days after the second anniversary of his wife’s death.

“My parents were not first-time holiday makers visiting Malta, they had visited the island for over 30 years at least once, if not twice a year. They were very aware of how careful you had to be crossing the road,” she said.

“When my father gave evidence in court, he was asked if there was anything he wanted to add. His response was that even though this terrible thing has happened, he would never lose his love for Malta or the Maltese people.

“How brave, how respectful –none of the behaviours that have been extended to us over the last nine years. I wonder how he would feel now.”

Gibson expressed gratitude at the hundreds of messages and social media posts that expressed outrage at the verdict and she said that well-wishers should not feel shame on her behalf.  “Shame lies with all who have had a hand in this case. I hope when they look in the mirror or pray to their God for forgiveness, someone is listening,” she said.

“Sadly the pain deep within my heart won’t allow me to forgive.”

The ruling of a suspended sentence in the case of an involuntary homicide in Malta is not unprecedented.

In their submissions on behalf of Spiteri, lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia presented 14 instances where a person found guilty of involuntary homicide was fined and did not receive an effective jail term.

In 2018, a restaurant owner who had struck and killed a 10- year-old boy who ran out onto the street in St Andrews received a two-year jail term suspended for three years.

And in another instance, a 36-year-old teacher, who struck and killed a 64-year-old man, had a five-year effective jail sentence turned into a six-month suspended sentence on appeal.