Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar has told The Malta Independent that the husband of a domestic abuse victim, a police inspector, is suspended and still on the police force payroll.

In a reply to questions by this newspaper, a media spokesperson from the commissioner’s office said ‘(name withheld) is on ‘precautionary suspension’ in terms of regulation 12 of the Public Service Commission Disciplinary Regulations (S.L.Const.03). ‘

According to the regulations, a public officer who is suspended for precautionary purposes shall receive half their salary unless the Commission, after consulting the Head of the Public Service, approves that he receives a higher proportion of the salary. 

Earlier this month, Michaela, the woman with whom the former cop is undergoing separation proceedings opened up to this newspaper about the series of domestic violence attacks which she has received over ten years. She had said that throughout this series of abuse “he is a police inspector [..] he is still on the payroll, he is still under police jurisdiction, just suspended, however he is still their employee. He just does not perform duties.”

One day after sections of the media had reported that two men traded blows after a simple car crash in Birkirkara, the partner of one of the men, David Joseph Gauci and estranged wife of the other spoke to this newspaper, saying that her estranged husband – the former inspector – had subjected her to more than a decade of domestic violence and that the violent row was just the latest in a series of incidents.

The woman told this newspaper that she had often suffered physical abuse and provided pictures of a past episode where she ended up with a black eye and a bloody lip.

She also produced a u number of threatening SMSs she had received from the former inspector, with whom is going through separation proceedings. In the messages he says he has made it his mission to put his wife and her partner in jail.

She also claimed that she had been reporting these cases to the police, and had even gone to speak to police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, but no action had been taken. The suspended officer had faced disciplinary proceedings following a number of incidents, including one in which he threatened the police commissioner while drunk.

In replies received by this newspaper, a spokesperson for the Police Commissioner also said, “action has been taken by the District Police when similar reports were lodged by both parties and cases appointed before the Courts. As regards to the other questions, it is not appropriate to comment as case is being heard in Court and is still ‘sub-judice’.”

The former was Cutajar’s reply to the following questions put forward by this newspaper; why is the suspended police inspector still on the police force payroll when he has all these cases? The lawyer, together with Michaela, held a meeting with you in the past regarding this issue. What measures did you take from your end regarding this situation? After the Birkirkara incident, did the police conduct any breathalyzer and toxicology tests on the suspended police inspector? Why did the police charge Mr David Gauci with grievous bodily harm when he was defending himself from the suspended police inspector since the latter entered his own house?

The name of the former police officer who was involved in the recent bloody Birkirkara brawl has been banned from publication by the court, in order to protect the children of the separating couple.