A 27 year-old man today was acquitted of causing grievous injury to another man after the courts cited insufficient proof. He was accused of hitting another man in the face with a glass.

The incident took place between the night of 24 and 25 August 2012, at a bar in St Paul ’s Bay.

At around 5.30am, Clinton Dalton was accused of causing grievous injury to Vincent Cutajar, assaulting him and threatening him. He was also accused of disrupting the peace and relapsing. Previous conditions of bail meant that he had to be home by 6pm, however he was still out and about at the time of the incident. He was acquitted of all charges.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud, presiding over the case, remarked that he is not in the same advantageous position as other courts with regard to evidence. He said that this is so because the case originally began to be heard before another magistrate.

The courts acquitted the accused, citing lack of evidence provided by the prosecution. He found that the prosecuting officers Jessica Abela and Joseph Busuttil had not managed to successfully prove their case, resulting in the accused being able to bring a degree of doubt as to whether it was him who caused injury to Mr Cutajar.

The courts came to such conclusions after reviewing the CCTV footage as well as the relevant pictures.