A man whose mother had written to the Police Commissioner claiming that her son was beaten up by "thug" police officers in the back of their van has been handed a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined €1,200 after admitting that he lied under oath and that, contrary to what he had initially stated, he was the one who assaulted the officers.

Etienne Caruana’s mother had written to Police Commissioner Michael Cassar, claiming that her son was singled out among people smoking inside the Playground Club in Paceville on New Year’s Eve and was then “roughly manhandled, handcuffed, thrown into a police van and given a severe beating, before being dumped back into the street.” She claimed that the man sustained cuts and lacerations to the head, as well as bruised ribs and muscles.

"While I do not approve in any way my son's behaviour, it is blatantly apparent that our so called protectors of the law (thugs in my view) illegally took the law in their own hands, administered a beating and then dumped him. As you are aware, there are more than a few bad apples in your force, and they protect one another.” The man had refused to go to Mater Dei and the mother wrote that he had also failed to file a police report, arguing that it would have been useless. "I am writing this in the small hope that you may exert some sort of control over your thugs before someone gets beaten to death and dumped in some valley," the letter concluded. The Police Commissioner had referred the letter to duty magistrate Gabriella Vella and an inquiry was appointed.

The letter sent to the Police Commissioner by Mr Caruana's mother. 

That inquiry found that things had happened differently. Mr Caruana, 30, from Iklin, had resisted the police when approached and then assaulted them when they put him inside their van. He also gave false testimony.

He was subsequently charged resisting the police, assaulting them, refusing to give his details to the police officers, disobeying their orders, breaching the peace, lying under oath before a magistrate, falsely accusing the police of a crime and with smoking inside a pub. 

Magistrate Ian Farrugia handed down a two-year prison sentence suspended for four, a €1,200 fine and a five-year general interdiction.

Lawyers Vince Micallef and Jean Paul Sammut appeared for the accused. Inspector Elton Taliana prosecuted.