Christian Cardona has been declared not guilty of being in possession of a gun and causing slight injury to George Falzon and his wife Silvianne Falzon.

He was originally charged with attempted murder, after having allegedly stabbed Mr Falzon and shot in his and his wife’s direction, but the Attorney General dropped the major charge due to lack of evidence.

Inspector Roderick Zammit said the police were informed of a domestic dispute on 26 January at around 6pm. He said that the fight was between Mr Falzon and the accused. The inspector had gone to Mater Dei Hospital in order to get Mr Falzon’s version of events. Mr Falzon had received a slight injury to his hand. He said he had visited his wife’s parents’ home together with their baby, and was accosted by the accused, his wife’s brother-in-law.

He told the inspector that the accused had brought out a knife to attack him with, while he was still in the car outside the parent-in-law’s home. He then told the inspector that his wife, Mrs Falzon, had tried to shield her husband from her brother and instructed him to drive away. While driving away, Mr Falzon told the inspector that the accused had fired a gun in their direction.

The testimony of Joseph Cardona, the accused’s father, and of the accused himself were somewhat different. Both alleged that Mr George Falzon had instigated the argument and was the first to brandish a knife.

Following a search, the police could not find any cartridges or the knife belonging to the accused. No dents were found on the car of the victim as a result of alleged bullet hits.

The court found the version of George Falzon hard to believe, and the version of events as told by the accused to have been consistent with the injuries on Mr Falzon. The court noted that it was the victim who started the argument and also escalated it. Therefore, the court noted that it was unable to find Christian Cardona guilty of causing Mr Falzon slight injury.

Magistrate Josette Demicoli, presiding over the case, cleared the accused of being in possession of a knife, as it transpired that the victim had brought out the knife, cleared him of breaching the peace, of relapsing by committing another crime, and of being in possession of a weapon.