A 29-year-old mother was today found not guilty of having falsely made up a scenario saying someone had tried to run off with a pushchair with her baby in it.

Marta Gatt, 29, born in Romania and living in Birzebbuga, had been accused of having deceitfully made up an event for it to be used against other persons with the intention of having them accused of a crime.

She was also accused of having spread false news which could cause public alarm, and of having used a social network to threaten to commit a crime for personal gain, or to make an accusation of someone with the intention of defaming them.

Gatt had, on 22 November 2017, filed a police report saying two unknown persons had tried to steal her pushchair with her baby in it.  

She alleged that, as she was facing away from the pushchair and buying a packet of cigarettes from a vending machine at a Birzebbuga confectionery shop, she had heard her baby crying. On turning to see what was happening, she said she saw a man and a woman, who were probably foreign, grabbing the pushchair and running off with it outside of the store.

She went on to say that another man, also foreign, gave chase to the man and woman, who, on realising someone was running after them, left the pushchair and ran off.

Gatt later posted on a private Facebook group saying someone had tried to snatch her baby.

The police then checked the store’s CCTV footage, and saw that nobody had taken Gatt’s pushchair with her baby in it.

After the police spoke to Gatt, she had signed a declaration admitting nobody had tried to take her baby. She explained she had no intention of causing harm to anyone or to create fear, but said she did what she did because she was still traumatised due to major problems she had with the baby’s father.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli found that the first and third accusations Gatt had been charged with were not proved to the degree required by law and found her not guilty of the charges.

The court also found that the elements required to amount to the crime of spreading false news were also absent from the case and absolved her of that charge.

Gatt was subsequently found not guilty of all charges brought against her.