The trial by jury of 25-year-old Jonathan Felice,  accused of grievously injuring an elderly woman during an attempted house  robbery entered its final stage today as the jury retired to deliberate. 

The jury, composed of 8 men and three women listened intently as Mr. Justice Michael Mallia explained the relevant principles of criminal law and procedure in the context of the case at hand.

The prosecution had accused Felice of breaking into the home of  81-year-old Dolores Debono in  2006, together with two other unidentified men, grievously injuring the woman in the process. Debono suffered a  fractured toe during the struggle.  

Of the three assailants, only one - alleged by the prosecution to be Felice - did not have a face covering. Debono had testified at the compilation stage that Felice was the one who held her down, injuring her, while the others ransacked her house.

Felice had chosen to testify to the jury, telling the court that he was not present during the robbery and that the victim had recognised him because  he used to play in  the street near her house as a child . Felice was 17 years old when the incident took place.

Mr Felice's version of events, however, was taken apart by lawyers Giannella Busuttil and Nadia Attard from the Attorney General's office  earlier this week, who pointed out that the victim had  recognised the accused on four separate occasions - two identification parades, in  photographs shown to her by the police and  finally in court when she testified in his compilation of evidence.

The victim was not called to testify in the trial on account of her age, the AG choosing instead to rely on the testimony she gave during the compilation of evidence. 

The victim was thus never cross examined by the defence.

Referring to this during his summing up, the judge pointed out that the defence might complain that the prosecution took seven years to begin proceedings, but on the other hand the defence had seven years to table their request to cross examine the victim. 

However Mr. Justice Mallia was at pains to point out that this was no fault of the accused's current counsel, lawyers Leslie Cuschieri  and Anna Portelli, who had only taken up the brief last year.