The court-seized laptop of former Marsaxlokk parish priest Luke Seguna, who is facing fraud charges, cannot be found in the law courts’ exhibit room, a magistrate heard.
Court expert Keith Cutajar told Magistrate Rachel Montebello how he was nominated by the court to examine the contents of the laptop.
But when he asked the exhibits’ officer for the device, a MacBook, it could not be found.
He said the laptop was exhibited in court by the prosecution on June 19, 2023. Since it is bulky it is not kept with the court documents but sent to the exhibits’ room after a registration number is allocated to it.
Cutajar said that, when he asked for the laptop and produced the relevant dates and number, he was told by the exhibit officer “we can’t find the laptop”.
The magistrate ordered that the exhibits’ officer be summoned to testify in the next sitting together with the police officer who exhibited it.
He was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Fr Luke Seguna who is facing charges of fraud, misappropriation and money laundering, with prosecutors claiming he swindled some 150 of his parishioners out of around €500,000 over a 10-year-span.
He is denying the charges.
Over a number of sittings since last August, numerous parishioners testified about the valuable work done by Fr Luke for the parish church and the people of Marsaxlokk, some saying that they missed his charitable acts.
Witnesses said that they willingly donated funds under the “arbural” system, while others explained that they used to donate money to the priest to be used by him as he best deemed fit.
However, prosecutors claim that the priest held hundreds of thousands of euros in various bank accounts, together with a collection of five motorbikes and two cars, despite a relatively meagre income as a clergyman.
Several suspicious bank transactions had triggered police investigations in his regard.
Some €148,000 were allegedly traced to payment processing companies linked to a porn site, while police also tracked down several cheques totalling around €18,000 issued by a third party to the priest.
The case continues.
AG lawyers Andrea Zammit and Ramon Bonett Sladden prosecuted. Lawyers Matthew Xuereb and Alex Scerri Herrera were defence counsel. Lawyer Stefano Filletti appeared parte civile on behalf of the Malta Archdiocese.