The behaviour of Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera was yesterday repeatedly described as “shocking” and “disturbing” by columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who is pleading not guilty to reviling, defaming, and harassing the magistrate on her blog last year.

Towards the end of her testimony before Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, which lasted for over an hour and a half, Mrs Caruana Galizia, 47, sighed that she was “tired” of exhibiting “evidence”, consisting mostly of photos, magazine features, Facebook posts and press reports, to highlight that the magistrate, for several years, “exposed herself to ridicule and made herself privy to gossip. For the last few years, Magistrate Scerri Herrera behaved like a party promoter, and used her position to expand her social life.”

Most of the photos exhibited showed Magistrate Scerri Herrera, who is being defended by Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell, in the company of MPs and members of the media during parties which she was known to organise in aid of charity.

Mrs Caruana Galizia said that MPs and media people were repeatedly invited despite the fact that according to the code of conduct for Maltese members of the judiciary, “members of the judiciary should not seek or court the publicity of the media”.

“If she wanted to contribute to charity, she should have written a cheque and sent it by post, which is what I do,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

On one occasion the magistrate even accepted an invitation to model diamonds on a catwalk at the Intercontinental Hotel. Years later, Magistrate Scerri Herrera presided a case involving theft from the same jewellery company.

“Is this how a magistrate should behave?” Mrs Caruana Galiza asked.

Asked what spurred her to write about the magistrate’s private life, Mrs Caruana Galizia replied:

“Magistrates are people like the rest of us. I’ve been writing about current affairs’ issues for 20 years and Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s behaviour was getting out of hand. The public has a right to know. She has no parameters. What’s worse is that I don’t think she realises how serious her behaviour is. I never wrote anything before because I also had pending cases before her.”

Magistrate Scerri Herrera was also known to gossip and speak about court cases during lunches and dinners she regularly organised, the columnist said. In a party she organised for her 45th birthday, Magistrate Scerri Herrera invited a number of policemen, lawyers and MPs, including Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett, “who are known to cause trouble to the government”.

During one of her more recent dinners which she organised, Rachel Attard and Lou Bondi, who are on TV regularly and who were among the invitees, told Mrs Caruana Galizia they were appalled that the magistrate spoke nonchalantly in front of everyone about ongoing cases she was presiding.

A number of guests during these parties would take drugs, particularly cocaine, Mrs Caruana Galizia said, “even though I know that Magistrate Scerri Herrera has never taken drugs and hates drugs. However, it is wrong for her to associate herself with people who take drugs,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

She said she knew Magistrate Scerri Herrera for 30 years, and the latter “blatantly lied” when she remarked that she never knew Mrs Caruana Galizia.

The columnist said she first met the magistrate when she was 16 as a sixth form student at St Aloysius.

“After sixth form we went our separate ways, but in later years we would meet up during reunions held every two months or so with other former students whom we used to hang out with. On one occasion, much to my amazement, her husband even invited me for a surprise birthday party he was organising for Dr Scerri Herrera because he thought we were that close.”

She stated that several other journalists knew of Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s “bad behaviour”, but turned a blind eye because “no one wants to stick their neck out like I do... because no one wants to be taken to court… and who can blame them?”, Mrs Caruana Galizia remarked. She strongly criticised the magistrate for posing on a front cover of a magazine with another magistrate who lives in Spain.

In an interview which she gave in First magazine (a monthly magazine distributed with The Malta Independent on Sunday) in 2008, Mrs Caruana Galizia pointed out how the magistrate portrayed herself to be a family loving woman, to the extent that she said that one of her favourite parts of the day is “when I (Magistrate Scerri Herrera) take a cup of tea to my husband in bed”.

Two months later, Magistrate Scerri Herrera left her husband to go and live with Siġġiewi PN mayor Robert Musumeci, who is also an architect and court expert, “and whom she had been having an affair with for a very long time. Once she associated herself with Mr Musumeci, she was indirectly involved in politics, when members of the judiciary should stay out of the political sphere,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

Most of the invitees to a party which Magistrate Scerri Herrera organised to celebrate Mr Musumeci’s birthday were PL MPs and journalists. Among the invitees was also opposition leader Joseph Muscat; “since when has an opposition leader been so close to a PN mayor that he gets to be invited to his birthday parties?”, Mrs Caruana Galizia asked.

Mrs Caruana Galizia said that after the magistrate went out with Mr Musumeci, Magistrate Scerri Herrera presided a case his brother Joseph had before her, whom she later acquitted over charges related to theft.

Prior to going out with Mr Musumeci, Magistrate Scerri Herrera had another affair with a police inspector, Mrs Caruana Galizia claimed.

Mrs Caruana Galizia spent a substantial part of her testimony criticising the magistrate for what she said and the photos she uploaded on Facebook.

One of the magistrate’s virtual friends, the accused said, included PL supporter Ronnie Pelligrini, whom she described as “trash” and who was “the worst person living in Malta in the 1980s”.

At this point, Magistrate Micallef Trigona stopped Dr Caruana Galizia, paused and told her that the court wants to hear about facts, not opinions.

When she continued, Mrs Caruana Galizia made reference to former Police Superintendent Patrick Spiteri, who she said had offered the magistrate drinks and who later left a restaurant with Magistrate Scerri Herrera in tow, even though in 2006 Mr Spiteri appeared before Magistrate Scerri Herrera after he was charged with accepting bribes, and whose case is still pending.

“Although justice has to be transparent,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said, Magistrate Scerri Herrera presided a number of cases involving her brother, José Herrera, a criminal lawyer and shadow minister for justice.

“After reading through the judgements involving her brother, I noticed a shocking pattern. Only one of her brother’s clients was given a prison sentence from the several judgements I leafed through. The others were either given a suspended sentence, conditionally discharged or placed on probation,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

Although she pointed out that she didn’t know the circumstances of most cases involving Dr Herrera, she was left appalled, Mrs Caruana Galizia said, that an AFM gunner got off with a suspended sentence for attempting to traffic drugs, and that a man who shot his neighbour with a revolver was merely fined Lm200 (€466).

“I have no faith in the Maltese judiciary, and so do many others I know,” Mrs Caruana Galizia concluded.

The case continues on 25 October.