10-year prison term for brutal mugging reduced after sentencing mishap

A mugger’s 10-year prison for the violent theft of a woman’s handbag which left the victim’s arm broken in three places, has been reduced to 8 on appeal, after it emerged that the defendant had already served a two year suspended sentence activated by the latter conviction.

Back in 2022, Miriam Elabed from Xghajra, had been jailed for 8 years for her part in the 2019 mugging, to which the court had added a 2-year prison term she had been handed upon conviction for a prior mugging, but which had previously been suspended. 

Elabed’s accomplice, former policeman Ramon Abela, who had looked on while Elabed delivered the merciless beating, was sentenced to imprisonment for 5 years.

She had subsequently filed an appeal, claiming to have been driving the car used in the attack and that Abela had been the one to repeatedly strike the victim with a 19cm metal tow hook. 

Elabed alleged that Abela had approached her with a vague invitation to “get some money,” which she had taken to mean the theft of truck batteries, and so she had picked him up from his home in Bormla. Abela had told her to drive to Sliema, she said, stopping the car when ordered to by Abela, who exited the vehicle and assaulted the victim, dragging her along the ground until she released her grip on her handbag.

On his part, Abela had given a similar account, but had claimed that he had been driving and that Elabed had assaulted the victim.

In view of the contradictory accounts of events, Mr. Justice Neville Camilleri, presiding the Court of Criminal Appeal, proceeded to re-examine the evidence.

Court: CCTV footage shows that appellant was not telling the truth 

The judge noted that from the witness stand, the victim had described her assailant as wearing a beige cap and had said that she had been under the impression that it had been a man, recalling both a male voice and the absence of bosoms. Another eyewitness had also described the assailant’s physical build as robust and well-built, noted the court. But CCTV footage showed the attacker, dressed in jeans, a cap and a light-coloured jacket, who “although also robust in appearance, can with little difficulty be seen to be a woman.”

Observing also that the recorded interrogation confirmed that Elabed’s voice “tended towards the masculine,”  as did her physique, the judge said he did not believe her claim.

“Not only does the CCTV footage not corroborate the appellant’s account, but also contradicts that version of events, which shows that she is not telling the truth.”

Defendant's two year suspended sentence had already been activated - and served 

But Mr. Justice Camilleri also noted that in his submissions, Elabed’s new lawyer, David Gatt, had argued that his client had already served the two year sentence which had originally been suspended. 

This turned out to be true, said the judge, after conducting a meticulous examination of the acts of the case. Two criminal conviction sheets exhibited in the proceedings made reference to the sentence which had been suspended in 2014, having been served in July 2022. 

Elabed’s 8-year prison sentence was both merited by the gravity and cruelty of the assault and fell within sentencing parameters laid down in the law, together with the fact that the woman did not appear to have addressed her problems, ruled the judge.

However, the Court of Magistrates should not have added the suspended 2-year prison sentence to punishment, because it had already been rendered active by another court and had been served by the defendant, said the judge. Elabed must now serve 8 years.

Lawyer David Gatt assisted Elabed.