An appeals court has cleared Police Sergeant Leeroy Balzan of any wrongdoing on charges related to the alteration of a police accident report concerning the shooting which involved the driver of Minister Manuel Mallia in 2014.
Paul Sheehan, driver of Minister Mallia, who at the time was Home Affairs Minister, fired two shots at a car, driven by Stephen Smith, in Kappara in November 2014, following a collision with the ministerial car.
Sheehan is charged with causing Smith fear that violence would be used against him, causing wilful damage to his vehicle, possessing a firearm during the commission of a crime, using it in a public place without authorisation and committing a crime he was duty-bound to prevent.
The charge of attempted homicide against him was dropped last May. Sheehan has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the case against him is on-going.
The police opened an investigation after parts of the arrest report regarding Stephen Smith, who was shot at on the night of the incident, were deleted.
Balzan had been accused of deleting a report from a computer system on 22 November between 1pm and 2pm at the Sliema police station.
Due to inconclusive evidence and reasonable doubt the court had cleared Balzan of computer misuse, preventing the input of data, changing, deleting or adding official data, committing crimes damaging to the government, prejudicing his senior and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.
He had received, however, a one-year conditional discharge for revealing a password granting access to official files to unauthorised personnel.
Lawyes Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri had filed an appeal, arguing that the sharing of passwords between police officers was necessary within their line of work, as new recruits would use their colleagues’ details until they took their oath of allegiance, as was confirmed by several high ranking police officers.
It was also noted that while a computer may automatically log out a user following 20 minutes of inactivity, it could remain active through the simple movement of the mouse or keyboard.
The court, which was presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, upheld the appeal and noted that the practice of sharing passwords had long occurred within the police force.
The court said it was “perplexed” by prosecution’s decision to pursue this charge given that the practice is well known.