A magistrate today threw out a libel suit filed against the Sunday newspaper Il-Mument by the widow and children of murder victim Paul Degabriele, Is-Suldat, over an article that described him as a "dangerous criminal."
Anna Maria, Nadeah and Ryan Degabriele complained that the front page article of Il-Mument on 16 June 2013, published two weeks after he was shot in Marsa, had implicated him in high-profile murders over the past months.
Magistrate Francesco Depasquale said the article's description of Degabriele as a dangerous criminal was justified in the context of his "never-ending" criminal record, which started from when he was just 15-years-old.
Degabriele, 48, of Fgura, was gunned down at around 11am outside Sammy’s Bar in Belt il-Ħazna Road, Marsa, on 31 May 2013 by an unknown man who escaped in a stolen van driven by an accomplice.
Degabriele had just walked out of the bar and was sitting in his Toyota pick-up when he was shot three times in the head and twice in his upper body. The police said a semi-automatic 9mm pistol was used.
In October 2012, a bomb was found under Debariele's Toyota. The device was detonated by ordnance experts. a. The device was safely detonated by ordnance experts.
Two months later he was among those questioned about the murder of Joseph Cutajar, known as Il-Lion, who was found dead in his car in Mosta a few hours after Josef Grech, 41, from Balzan, Il-Yo Yo, had been fatally shot in the head in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.
Degabriele was released without being charged.
The magistrate noted how although Degabriele's wife and children told the court that he had never had any problems with the law and had never been to court except for once when he was fined €400, his criminal record showed otherwise.
The "never-ending" record showed a list of convictions on crimes ranging from breaching the peace during various fights to theft of cars and jewellery. He was convicted of crimes in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, 2002 and 2006.
In 2001 he was convicted of having committed a string of thefts in 1984 when he was still a teenager.
He stole €87,000 worth of gold and silverware from jewellery shops in Valletta, Sliema and Birkirkara and €7,000 in cash and items from a shop in Sliema. He had also been convicted of having stolen three cars and a number of stereos from various cars.
Magistrate Francesco Depasquale noted that when Degabriele was murdered, he was due to be charged in court over the theft of a refrigerated van full of frozen meats in January 2005.
"With a criminal record like this, the court finds it incredible how the family could attempt to object to a description of Degabriele as a dangerous criminal," the magistrate said.
The court lauded the "meticulous research" behind the newspaper article, which delved into a series of crimes and murders "that remained unsolved through no fault of the police but because of the omerata that reigns in the circle of organised crime in which Mr Degabriele was well-known."