A judge yesterday noted that the Court of Magistrates was handing down suspended sentences too easily, adding that the dispositions of the law that regulate suspended jail terms were not always being applied correctly.

In an appeal judgement, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono also expressed his disappointment about the “mysterious” way with which the accused was only charged with attempted violent indecent assault when he could have been charged with attempted rape.

The case involves Gide Idris Mahder from Eritrea, who was originally given a six-month jail term suspended for a year for the attempted violent indecent assault of a woman in Floriana on 17 March this year.

Mahder had been given a six-month jail term suspended for a year after he admitted to the attempted violent indecent assault of a woman, slightly injuring her and offending public morals.

The Attorney General filed an appeal requesting that the punishment be converted to an effective jail term since this would really reflect the serious nature of the crime. Mr Justice Galea Debono upheld this request and the punishment was converted into an effective jail term on appeal.

Mr Justice Galea Debono took the occasion to express his concern about the way suspended sentences were being handed down by the Court of Magistrates. He said it also seems that it is becoming a practice in the Court of Magistrates what when a person is apprehended committing a crime... no matter how serious, the accused admits on arraignment in order to be given some form of reduced punishment or a suspended jail term. “In this way within a few minutes that person is free again, as though nothing had happened,” the judge said.

He said that, in cases which involve the handing down of suspended jail terms, the courts need to be more sensitive in order not to give the false impression that the courts were not responding to society’s need to be protected from increasing criminality.

He said he could also not understand how the presiding magistrate handed down the judgement without hearing the testimony of the victim.

In fact, in the appeal, the court listened to this testimony and heard how she was walking out of Valletta speaking to her husband on her mobile and the man assaulted her, caught her by the neck and told her he wanted to have sex with her. The man also managed to ground her and even managed to start removing her trousers. He also punched her in the eye when she resisted him. The man was eventually arrested when a police officer arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

On hearing this, the judge ruled that he was mystified at how Mahder had only been charged with attempted violent indecent assault when there was evidence of the elements of violent indecent assault and even of attempted rape.

He said the Court of Magistrates was right in the calculation of the six-month jail term but added that it should not have been suspended.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Tonna Lowell prosecuted while Dr Patrick Valentino represented Mahder.