The jurors’ individual plea for mercy and the guilty man’s progress in his rehabilitation motivated Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo to reduce by one third the jail sentence imposed on Stanley Chircop, which was the minimum period required by law.

Chircop, 38, from Zebbug residing in Fgura, was yesterday evening sentenced to 35 months in jail and fined e2,562.30 (Lm1,100) after he was found guilty of three of the four charges brought against him. His term sentence will be reduced by a further three months, which he had already spent in preventive custody between November 1998 and February 1999.

After almost nine hours of deliberation, the jury returned their verdict yesterday at 2am. Chircop was acquitted by seven votes to two of the heroin trafficking charge and found guilty to trafficking cocaine by six votes to three, guilty to heroin possession by eight votes to one and unanimously guilty to cocaine possession. The crimes were committed between February 1997 and June 1998.

After reading out the verdict, one by one, the nine jurors recommended the court to show clemency with Chircop, explaining that the guilty man was a reformed person.

A juror also complained about the nine years which lapsed between the commission of the crimes and the pressing of charges against Chircop.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo said he took into account the jurors’ plea by jailing Chircop for 52 months, the minimum penalty he could inflict according to the law.

Furthermore, he reduced the prison term by a third after taking into account the submissions made by Probation Officer Mariella Camilleri and Sedqa’s Individual Programme Coordinator Carmen Brincat. These vouched for Chircop’s progress in his rehabilitation and his commitment to teach abusers to say no to drugs.

Superintendent Neil Harrison and Inspector Norbert Ciappara from the Police Drug Squad left the court room halfway through the reading out of the judgment.

For his part, Chircop made the sign of the cross and sighed in relief after hearing the judge accepting defence lawyer Joe Brincat’s request for him to be sent straightaway to a drug rehabilitation community rather than spending the mandatory first six months in prison. The request still has to be accepted by the prison authorities.

In his submissions on punishment, prosecutor Aaron Bugeja told the court that while Chircop took to reforming himself, it could not ignore the hardships endured by the victims of his drug trafficking.

Dr Brincat said his client should not have undergone a trial by jury as the case should have been put before the Magistrates’ Court, as his accusers’. He especially mentioned a witness who was only jailed for a month after accusing Chircop and pleading guilty to being in possession of 50 grammes of cocaine and Lm3,000 cash he declared to be profits from cocaine trafficking.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo said it would have been a wiser decision to try Chircop before a Magistrates’ Court.

Dr Aaron Bugeja and Dr Lara Lanfranco from the Office of the Attorney General prosecuted while Dr Joe Brincat represented Chircop.