Mellieha man who ran over obnoxious Aussie tourist ‘was defending his honour’

A Mellieha man was surprisingly discharged after causing a tourist permanent disability, when the court ruled his actions were provoked by the victim's taunting,

9 October 2012, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

2 min read

The insinuation by a drunken tourist that the accused was gay, led the court to believe the accused from Mellieha was defending his honour when the accusation was made in the presence of other villagers.

TWEET SHARE

Alan Gauci, 36 of Mellieha, was given a conditional discharged by Magistrate Carol Peralta after admitting to causing permanent disability on an Australian tourist in 2004, when he deliberately ran him over in a car at 4am, on the basis that the accused - a Mellieha resident - had defended his honour after he was called "gay" by the tourist.

Magistrate Peralta said in his judgement that the accused "lives in Mellieha, and in his psyche, had a reputation to defend in his village."

"The incident happened in Mellieha, and before fellow villagers, so the insinuation that the accused was 'gay' - even if there is nothing wrong with that - perhaps in the accused's psyche and other villagers', was not acceptable."

Gauci was conditionally discharged after the court noted that he had been provoked into reacting the way he did, when he drove his Sunbeam vehicle onto Australian national Jeremy Lalic, seriously injuring him and causing him permanent disability.

The incident happened on the night of March 21, 2004 when Gauci and his friends were drinking at Zap's Bar in Mellieha. Lalic and his friend walked into the bar, and according to the prosecuting police inspector, drank heavily to the extent that they got drunk, and started to make noise and annoy patrons.

Gauci said that he did not react to gesticulations made by Lalic behind his back, that implied he was a gay man, but the prosecuting inspector said he was heard saying that "this man [Lalic] deserves to be run over by a car."

The Australians were subsequently kicked out of the bar, and Gauci left some time afterwards, only to find Lalic and his friend walking up the road.

It was here that Gauci decided to drive into them, hitting Lalic and seriously injuring him.

In its judgement, the Court relied on evidence given by the prosecutor Inspector Michael Mallia, who said that the incident was a result of provocation. "In the circumstances of how things evolved, nothing would have happened had things gone differently."

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

•

As a foreigner who has spent more than a year of my life living in Malta, I am truly saddened to read this. There are simply no words to describe just how wrong it is. I mean, seriously? A man drunk drives into a bunch of tourists to permanently disable a visitor to the country, then walks away as if nothing has happened? Wtf. Malta is a beautiful place with beautiful and friendly people. It is the kind of place I could see myself return to to grow old. However, reading this story also makes me realize just how big problems you guys still have. This ruling is pure sharia'n homophobia. It sends a message that calling someone "gay" justifies attempted murder just to defend some backwards notion of honor. It is sickening and disgusting on all levels and reflects awfully on the Maltese notions of justice. What is worse is however that it could also be interpreted to reflect on certain leftovers of a rotten national mentality. For everyone's sake, I hope someone gets this right and the ruling is reverted. So, so sad.

•

Chris Tanthi •

If I were to call a Magistrate a moron, would the fact that I hail from the backwoods of Rabat be considered an extenuatiing factor?

•

More often than not even the guy who beats up his wife or girlfriend is "defending his honour".

•

Australia might recall its ambassador.

•

Someone should find out if the accused paid off the judge. That is the only explanation that might make any sense. Oh, have I dishonored the judge by saying such a thing? No - HE dishonored himself! He deserves every insult people could imagine. But be careful... he thinks it's ok to run people over with cars. Time for teh politicians to open their mouths up about somehting that ma

•

Which two countries where the justice system is failing by the hour, where democracy is no longer 'available' and the other tier of democracy, the justice system, is defunct? Its MALTA and Nigeria.

•

This entirely justifies the recent pay rise for the waste of time known as the Maltese courts of JUSTICE{sic).

•

Absolutely scandalous! Somebody should make a list of such outrageous court decisions, and post them on the web.

•

Had anyone told me this judgement was delivered in one of the darkest muslim countries, I would still not have believe it actually happened. But we are really reinventing the wheel when it comes to court judgements.

•

This is unbelievable. A magistrate, who states that it is permissible to use extreme violence against another person simply because that person has upset you.

•

This is a disgrace. Citing provocation as an acceptable cause for inflicting injury is dangerous and harks back to biblical times. Unless the public reacts and forces a change our nation will continue to fester in this malaise. Magistrate Carol Peralta must be citing Sharia law and not the civilised laws we are supposed to be following. (Yes I am inferring that Sharia law is NOT civilised). I am ashamed of our legal system. I am ashamed of our courts. I am frustrated, angered and I want this changed. The next move belongs to us the people. Are we going to just accept this and move on?

•

First of all, the suggestion that this reaction was somehow justified because the accused lives in Mellieha is an insult to people in Mellieha, and outrageous in general. Secondly, to give a suspended sentence for deliberating running somebody over with a car (we are not talking a knock on the head here) is shocking. How can it be anything but attempted manslaughter? But here you go...... have an extra EUR 12,000 a year.

•

Incredible! I could not believe what I was reading this is a joke. What on earth is happening in our courtrooms?

•

Minn meta il-Mellieha sar ta wara il-muntanji. I know ambassadors, academics and politicians from Mellieha . I find the judgement unbelievable. Driving a car and intentionally running over and permanently injuring somebody is excusable because the incident happened in an alleged bumpkin and hillybilly country culture and yet a mother who could not convince her 16 year old to adhere to his father's visitaation right is sent to jail for 3 months.

•

What a total disgrace, would things have been different if this man was killed? but no he is only seriously injured and disabled through this mans actions. And we have a woman who got sent to jail for 3 months because her son who is 17 did not want to visit his father. What a total shambles and shame on the magistrate.

•

I call upon parliament to impeach this magistrate. Even by the standards of Malta's courts, he is not fit for the job.