Updated 6.28am

A woman has been jailed for four years for being an accomplice in two muggings in Sliema 12 years ago, causing the death of an 80-year-old woman.

Bernice Camilleri, now 33, was seated in the backseat of a car driven by her boyfriend Richard Attard, when together with Charles Brincat the trio headed to Sliema and decided to carry out a robbery to get money for drugs.

The decision would prove to be a life-changing one. One of their victims, 80-year-old Rose Garroni, would end up dead a few days after Brincat snatched her handbag and pushed her to the ground in Dingli Circus. There was just €20 in the handbag.

They had no predetermined plan when they first decided to rob people, Brincat testified this week. 

He had suggested robbing someone and Attard, though initially reluctant, had agreed to go along with the plan. Camilleri barely said a word throughout the discussion, Brincat told the court. 

Brincat recalled driving through Sliema that December 8 evening and spotting an elderly woman on a pavement in Dingli Street. He rushed out of the car and snatched her handbag. 

When Garroni put up a struggle, he pushed her to the ground. Garroni was found later, lying unconscious in a pool of blood. She had been standing outside her apartment. 

Brincat and Attard would go on to spend the €20 they stole from her on cocaine.

The trio returned to Sliema later that evening and mugged another elderly woman. This time, the 88-year-old did not resist and was spared injuries. 

Days later, after learning that the first mugging victim had died, Brincat came clean about the crime, saying his conscience would not allow him to rest. 

Brincat and Attard were found guilty a few years ago and sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison respectively for the crimes.

A nightmare relationship

Late on Friday night, a court concluded that Camilleri had been guilty of crimes that day, finding her guilty of theft aggravated by the fact that it was committed after dark and by more than one person, which led to a person's death. 

She was also found guilty of possession of cocaine.

Camilleri gave the court a harrowing account of her life at the time with Attard, whom she described as a drug addict who controlled her in every way and would not let her go anywhere without him.

She had lost all contact with her family and had no friends to turn to, she said. 

So desperate was she to break free of that abusive relationship, she testified, that when Attard was allowed out of prison on bail, she got her own bail revoked and ended up back in prison, just to get away from him. 

Camilleri eventually reconciled with her parents after seeking their forgiveness. Her mother and father were present in the courtroom as judge Aaron Bugeja read her guilty verdict. 

Judge Bugeja noted that Camilleri had not proved, on the balance of probability, that she was totally extraneous to the crimes. 

Though she did not love Attard, she shared in the drugs and his life until finally breaking free. As the three drove around Sliema, the talk was of buying drugs for all three of them, he noted, and Camilleri had shared a bottle of wine with them that afternoon. 

Camilleri had not done anything to stop the other two men from proceeding with their plan, proving her complicity, and stayed with them that night until the very end. 

The thefts were aggravated as they were committed after dark and also because more than two aggressors were present.  

However, there was no proof that Camilleri agreed to the violent way in which Brincat mugged Garroni and had no way of knowing what he was doing at that moment. 

The court declared Camilleri guilty of complicity in the thefts as well as simple possession of cocaine and condemned her to a 4-year jail term and a fine of €1,000.

Prosecutors had asked for a jail term of between eight and 20 years. 

AG lawyers Karl Muscat and Anthony Vella prosecuted. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Rebecca Mercieca were defence counsel.