Inmate challenges magistrate: 'You can fine me as much as you want ... will spend it in jail'

A court has fined a prison inmate €100 after he demonstrated a spectacularly bad attitude towards a magistrate and police inspector.

In a sitting this afternoon, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja found Sylvester James, known as 'il-Bomba', to be in contempt of court on two occasions for interrupting and fined him €50 for each. However James did not stop his disrespectful behaviour, telling the magistrate that he “was not going to pay a cent.”

"You can fine me as much as you want. Whatever the amount, I will spend it jail," he said.

James was testifying in a case against Jason Decelis, accused of assaulting a prison warder, offending him and falsely accusing him of committing a crime. From the witness stand, James told the court that he had not seen anyone hitting Decelis and that he had only heard the correctional officer telling Decelis that he had to use another bathroom as the one he wished to use was one used by officials. 

However the sitting unravelled shortly after, as James vociferiously objected to being asked questions in clarification of his statements, apparently interpreting them as an effort to confuse him.

"You're not going to confuse me," he told the inspector and the magistrate defiantly, asking them who they thought they were and throwing in a selection of choice adjectives for good measure.

In an attempt to restore order to proceedings, police Inspector Spridione Zammit reminded the prisoner that he was addressing a magistrate. "What do I care? And I am Il-Bomba," James shot back. 

James then sarcastically asked the magistrate whether he preferred cheques or cash, at which point he was ordered out of the courtroom.

Decelis, who is currently in jail serving a 25-year-prison sentence for the 2001 murder by omission of 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler, had alleged that a correctional officer in prison ordered him to urinate on the floor of his cell to bully him. A subsequent inquiry found this account to have been fictitious.