A court today cleared Police Sergeant Leeroy Balzan on charges related to the elimination of a police accident report concerning the shooting which involved the driver of Minister Manuel Mallia in 2014.
Paul Sheehan, driver of Minister Mallia, who at the time was Home Affairs Minister, fired shots at a car in Kappara in November 2014.
The police opened an investigation after parts of the arrest report regarding Stephen Smith, who was shot at on the night of the incident, were deleted.
Mr Balzan was accused of deleting a report on 22 November between 1pm and 2pm at the Sliema Police Station.
The court, which was presided over by Magistrate Doreen Clarke, heard that Mr Balzan had viewed the report after the police force’s media representative requested information regarding the whereabouts of Stephen Smith and Paul Sheehan.
Mr Balzan informed the court that while he was not certain as to whether or not he closed he report after the conversation, he did not delete the report.
A testimony by PC Luke Busuttil meant that the court could not ascertain as to whether the accused was present at the police station when said report had been erased.
“Unfortunately, this witness was not very credible.. due not only to his behaviour while testifying but also because of discrepancies in the versions he gave,” the court noted.
Mr Busuttil initially said that the Mr Balzan was present between 13:15 and 13:30 when other officers had already left.
He then altered his statement and said that the accused had left while he was filling in the report.
There were also CCTV footage which shows the accused walking in Rudolph Street, Sliema at 1:24pm, which verified Mr Balzan ’s statement.
Due to inconclusive evidence and reasonable doubt the court cleared Balzan of computer misuse, preventing the input of data, changing, deleting or adding official data, committing crimes damaging to the government, prejudicing his senior and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.
He received a one-year conditional discharge for revealing a password granting access to official files to unauthorised personnel.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel. Inspector Sandro Camilleri and Jesmond Micallef prosecuted.