A Place in the Sun

Qormi murder compilation of evidence behind closed doors This story published in The Times of Malta today has seriously aroused my curiosity. For a trial to be fair, it should be a public hearing, which is one of democracy's ways of ensuring that justice is not only done, but that it is also seen to be done. However, sometimes there is a greater need for the protection of a citizen, so great that it overrides the requirement of publicity (e.g. the need to protect the privacy of minors i.e. those under 18 years of age), in which case the court may order that certain parts of the trial - or all of it - remain private except to the involved parties. In this case it is only the gathering of evidence that is taking place behind closed doors - though I am very curious as to know why. Another interesting issue about this case is this. A man had entered or trespassed on the property of another, and got killed in the process. The person who killed him was naturally acting in self defe

This week I was involved in a court case which allowed me to witness a serious problem that led to justice not being served. I don't frequently practise before the criminal courts, but this was a case where I was appearing for the victim. The Maltese law now allows the criminal court to award damages to the victim, based on the actual damage suffered. In this case, I was dealing with a police inspector and we were working on the gathering of the evidence in order to charge the attacker in a street fight with grievous bodily harm. The parties had been involved in a scuffle after a near-miss vehicle incident, and the other party hit the victim who now stands to lose her front teeth. Last week the case was due to be heard, and we discovered that another police inspector had already filed the case, got a quick hearing, and the defendant was granted an acquittal based on the lack of evidence in the case. The charge in the other case was for a less serious offence. However since he had