A 16-year-old boy from Marsascala was yesterday given a six-month jail term suspended for two years after he admitted to carrying a firearm following an incident in which he said he was beaten up by 10 men.

Appearing before Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna, the boy, whose name is not being published since he is still a minor, pleaded guilty to carrying a firearm on the night between Saturday and Sunday at around 1am. He also pleaded guilty to breaching the peace. Prosecuting Inspector Anthony Cassar told the court that in his statement, the boy told the police he had been in a bar in Marsascala when 10 men beat him up. He said he went home and took his mother’s shotgun from a wardrobe; he said his mother had tried stopping him.

Inspector Cassar quoted the boy as saying that he intended to shoot and that he would have definitely done so had he found the aggressors.

The inspector added that the police had then stopped the boy.

Defence lawyer Shazoo Ghaznavi told the court the boy had had a little bit too much alcohol and he repeated that the boy had been beaten up. Dr Ghaznavi said the police had stopped the boy when he was already on his way home, so his intentions had changed. The teenager was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years and the court ordered he be placed under the supervision of a probation officer for two years.

Magistrate Apap Bologna warned the boy about the seriousness of the case and the consequences he could face should he commit another offence during the period of the suspended sentence. The magistrate also counselled the boy’s mother to leave the firearm licensed in her name away from the boy’s reach and possibly to get rid of it.

Police Inspector Anthony Cassar prosecuted. Dr Shazoo Ghaznavi and Dr Joseph Giglio appeared for the accused.