A woman who the court heard had psychiatric problems and who had been admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital in the past was yesterday cleared of theft after the court ruled that the prosecution had not brought enough evidence that she had stolen the items for

profit.

The 54-year-old woman was cleared of stealing two photo frames from a house close the her home. The court heard police inspector Jeffrey Cilia testify that on 20 September 2001, the owner went home and found the front door to his house open and a few frames with photographs of his family missing.

The man said the front door was damaged and did not close properly. Some days later, he had told the police that he had found the stolen frames and the photos torn to pieces in a plastic bag at his front door.

In July 2002, the same man informed the police that someone had rung his doorbell and when he opened, he found one of the photographs also torn to pieces just outside his front door. He said he went upstairs and looked out of the window and saw a woman walking down the road. He said he followed her and when he spoke to her, she started shouting at him and offending him. He called the police and the woman was arrested.

At first, she denied stealing the frames but when the police searched her house, they found the photographs in the woman’s washroom. She told police that she only wanted to scare the man’s family and make them believe that someone is following them.

Handing down her judgement, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that in order to prove theft, the prosecution had to prove that the woman had stolen the frames to make some kind of profit. She said that the woman would have been found guilty had she been charged with other crimes such as trespassing, voluntary damage and saying rude words in public. However, these charges were not included and the charge of theft was not proven.

She therefore found the woman not guilty of the charges brought against her. Magistrate Scerri Herrera ordered the police commissioner to take into consideration the report of the psychiatrist and take all the action he deems fit according to the law with the final aim of her being admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital.