A witness took the court back to the Bad Eighties last week when he described how police had arrested his 16-year-old son at night, and kept him in custody for 24 hours... and all because the boy had stuck a Xandir Malta boycott sticker on a shop window in Sliema.

Edgar Gatt was testifying in a libel case instituted by Labour MP Anglu Farrugia against columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Mr Gatt told the court the police called at night saying they wanted to question his son. He offered to take him to Police HQ himself but the police said he was go with them in their car.

He had followed and had told Dr Farrugia, at that time a police inspector and in charge of the case, that nothing must happen to his boy. Dr Farrugia had asked him if he was threatening him, Mr Gatt added.

He had then called Maggie Moran, who he knew from work, and asked her to intervene. She called back within minutes and said that if drugs or crime were involved, it would have been no problem, but since this was political, she could do nothing.

The boy was released the next day, Mr Gatt added, without being charged.