A man who allegedly molested passersby in Valletta on Wednesday and put up a violent struggle when the police turned up, has been taken to court and remanded in custody.  

Prosecutors said a report was made to Valletta police station on Wednesday about a man, later identified as 24-year old Damien Attard, who was molesting people in Republic Street. When police officers approached him he reacted aggressively, insulting and spitting at them. He put up a struggle when they tried to arrest him.

After he was finally arrested and taken to the police station, he kept up his aggressive stance and hurt one of the officers.

Attard was escorted to the court in handcuffs on Thursday and remained handcuffed until Magistrate Noel Bartolo caught sight of the metal restraints behind the accused’s back and asked why they were still on. 

“He was still rather agitated,” explained the prosecuting officers.

The magistrate ordered the escorting officers to remove the cuffs and the accused to sit down quietly.

Attard then pleaded not guilty to attacking and violently resisting four police officers, insulting and threatening them, slightly injuring one of them, refusing to obey legitimate orders, wilfully breaching public peace, swearing, relapsing and also breaching two bail decrees.

Defence lawyer Franco Debono asked whether the accused had told police that he had been attacked “by other persons” in Wednesday’s incident.

Inspectors Gabriel Micallef and Daryl Borg said that it all started when the accused began to molest passersby.

He did mention that “someone” had confronted him but he could not identify that person.

That was when the trouble started but as soon as police arrived, Attard did not give them the chance to speak. He behaved aggressively and used physical violence against the officers, said the prosecutors.

A request for bail was objected to because the accused was deemed untrustworthy and also because of the gravity of the charges.

This was not the first time Attard landed in trouble for attacking public officials and had in fact, been convicted of similar charges by a Magistrates’ Court.

Besides, the address on the police system was not the accused’s current address and that in itself amounted to a breach of bail, prosecutors said.

The defence countered that the accused was presumed innocent and there was no fear of tampering with evidence since the main witnesses were police officers.

There was also some doubt in respect of the dynamics of the incident.

The court rejected the request for bail in light of the nature of the offences and the fact that the accused did not offer the necessary guarantees in terms of law.

Inspectors Gabriel Micallef and Daryl Borg prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.