The Court of Magistrates this week acquitted a 41-year-old man from Qormi of attempted murder, but found him guilty of threatening two people and breaching the peace.

Horace Azzopardi was found not guilty of attempting to murder Emanuel Schembri by firing a weapon in his direction on 15 February 2004 at around 10pm.

He was also found not guilty of damaging Mr Schembri’s car, of carrying a weapon without a licence and its protective cover and of firing the weapon in a public place.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Giovanni Grixti found that the Attorney General had failed to identify the items in relation to the charge of attempted murder.

Azzopardi was acquitted of damaging Mr Schembri’s car since no evidence was presented to show that the accused himself had fired the weapon on the night.

He was therefore only found guilty of verbally threatening Mr Schembri and Doris Cachia after Mr Schembri hit his car when he was parking in Qormi.

Mr Schembri told the court he had agreed to pay Azzopardi Lm250 for the damage. The accused then went to Ms Cachia’s house, since Mr Schembri had promised to give her the money to hand over to Azzopardi. It was then that the accused is said to have verbally threatened the victims.

Azzopardi was found guilty of verbally threatening and breaching the peace and was fined Lm50.

Police Inspectors Silvio Valletta and Maria Stella Attard prosecuted.