A former soldier dismissed after a video emerged of him making fun of the army had faced over 20 disciplinary charges during his military career, Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi has testified.

Godwin Schembri, who was a bombardier, had faced disciplinary action for various offences including assaulting a migrant he was escorting on a repatriation flight, illegally working as a bouncer and carrying pepper spray without a licence.

Curmi took the witness stand in a court case filed by the former soldier who was discharged from the forces in 2018, shortly after a leaked video featuring him driving a military vehicle whilst making fun of a gate which had been installed at the Pembroke shooting range with no boundary wall attached to it, went viral.

Schembri’s dismissal was criticised by some quarters as an overreaction, with a Facebook group subsequently being set up to show solidarity with him.

But a different picture started to emerge in court before Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale today, with Brigadier Curmi providing the context to the dismissal during his cross-examination by lawyers Marion Camilleri and Mario Spiteri, who are appearing for Schembri.

“Godwin Schembri, during the course of his career in the AFM from 2003 to 2012, had a long list of disciplinary reports written about him. He had been placed on over 20 charges, given three official warnings and had sullied his criminal record,” explained Curmi, going on to say that the problem was that Schembri’s bad behaviour had continued throughout the years, and was not related to the initial shock of the reality of military life.

As the Brigadier testified, the court had to warn Schembri for waving a photo at the witness. Schembri was later ordered out of the courtroom by the judge, for interrupting proceedings.

Lawyer Marion Camilleri asked the Brigadier to give some detail on the court cases involving the plaintiff.

Curmi replied that there was one case decided in 2009, before magistrate Saviour Demicoli, where Schembri had been convicted of failing to stop at a traffic light near the Hompesch gate, whilst driving his car in 2008.

“This was a repetition of something that he did several times in the AFM and for which he was put on charges,” the Brigadier went on.

In fact, Schembri had undergone several disciplinary proceedings relating to negligent driving, said the witness. “Imagine a person driving a military vehicle, in uniform and God forbid he injures someone. And then the subsequent inquiry would then find out that he had a series of charges,” Curmi told the court.

Schembri had also received three official warnings during his military career. Camilleri pointed out that many other soldiers had also received warnings, but had not been discharged from the AFM. “As long as I am Brigadier, if I have cases of soldiers who receive official warnings and continue to offend, I will take steps,” Curmi replied.

Schembri had a “substantial number” of military charges during his time in the AFM, said the witness. Asked to provide examples, he cited a 2009 traffic conviction, for which a warrant of arrest had been issued against the former soldier. On another occasion, on 28 October 2013, Magistrate Saviour Demicoli had found him guilty of attacking three men in Qawra with pepper spray and slightly injuring them. “Unlicensed pepper spray, acting as a bouncer without licence and committing an offence he was duty bound to prevent,” the witness read out from Schembri’s military record.

Curmi continued to read out some of the other military charges against the plaintiff, which included speeding in barracks and punching an irregular migrant whilst on a repatriation flight.

Regarding the latter incident, the Brigadier said the following: “In 2006, on an Air Malta flight to Cairo, repatriating irregular migrants. Schembri had asked a fellow soldier, who was filming him, to ‘get me punching this guy,’ He then punched a migrant in the presence of police officers.”

It was an unhappy enough situation for the migrants who were being sent back to Africa, said the Brigadier, let alone being physically assaulted during their flight. “He should have been dismissed for this offence alone, but it was before my time,” Curmi testified.

The judge remarked that there were many charges in 2012 and another two charges during Curmi’s tenure as Commander.

“After 2013, he had received two official warnings, one of which was over excessive charges during his career,” Curmi replied.

Thumbing through the list of other charges, the Brigadier noted that on one occasion, Schembri had been put on a charge for kicking a vending machine and when summoned before his platoon commander, had shown no remorse for his wrongdoing, telling the Lieutenant that he would kick it again and kick anyone else.”

Reading from another charge, Curmi said Schembri had been punished for failing to provide the correct contact details to his superiors.

In reply to further questions from Camilleri, the Brigadier said he left such issues to be dealt with at unit level. “I don’t interfere with my people issuing charges. I don’t even want to know. I get involved when a soldier exercises his legal right to ask me for a review of his charge.”

Camilleri asked whether there were “any other reasons” for Schembri’s dismissal. “The reason for his dismissal was that, after I saw his disciplinary history, I sent for him.”

The Court asked if a video was involved in his dismissal.

Camilleri pointed out that the last official warning was 2015. Why was he fired in 2018?

“Because he made a series of mistakes, including taking a video…” began the witness, before Camilleri cut him off, asking for more information about the video.

“I was told about it three days before [his dismissal], and then I had received hundreds of communications from different people about the video.”

It was Schembri’s commanding officer, Major Edric Zahra, who took disciplinary action against the plaintiff over the video, Curmi said.

Camilleri asked whether Maj. Zahra had informed him that he was going to take action. “That is his job as commanding officer,” replied the witness.

Reading from the resulting disciplinary decision, the judge noted that Schembri had been assigned extra duties as a result. He asked what had led Curmi to discharge the soldier from the AFM.

“After his superiors took action, I went to the office and looked up his records” replied the Brigadier. It was after seeing his continued disciplinary transgressions that the Brigadier had taken the decision to give Schembri the boot.

“From the video I could see the dangerous driving in a military land rover…not even looking at the road. I wasn’t too bothered by the joke and the foul language is his responsibility. There is a procedure, handled by Mr. Zahra. The accused is heard and can summon witnesses.”

Brig. Curmi had summoned Schembri to his office to hear his version. “He didn’t even bother recognising his error and was only worried about his dismissal. He didn’t worry about his dangerous driving, for which he had also been convicted by the courts. The joke wasn’t the problem, it didn’t affect me to be honest. He mocked himself, and the entire armed forces but I wasn’t even mentioned.”

A commanding officer doesn’t have the right to discharge a soldier from the armed forces, only the Commander of the AFM can do so, Curmi pointed out, quoting the Armed Forces Act.

During further cross-examination by lawyer Mario Spiteri, who is also appearing for Schembri,  it emerged that the plaintiff had 23 charges on his military record and that his last charge had been reviewed by the AFM and his punishment reduced to three extra guard duty shifts instead of five, as it had been too harsh.

“The reviewing officer’s job is to look at the charge, not the decision to dismiss,” explained the witness. “I appointed the review officer for correctness’ sake. The decision to dismiss is mine alone.”

Prompted by AFM lawyer Susann Agius, Curmi informed the court that one of the charges was about an incident where Schembri nearly died after eating a poisonous blister beetle for a bet. “There was a bet between a handful of soldiers that he would eat a beetle. He ended up in the hospital’s ITU and nearly died. This is the type of joking around he would do,” Curmi said.

The case continues in May.