Silvio Scerri denies ordering Paul Sheehan to lie about shooting incident

Journalist Joe Mikallef had allegedly insinuated that Scerri had ordered Sheehan to mislead police by claiming that he had fired shots into the air, Silvio Scerri said

Silvio Scerri
Silvio Scerri

The former chief of staff to former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia has denied ordering the minister’s driver, PC Paul Sheehan, to lie to the police regarding an incident in which he had allegedly shot at a car after a hit and run.

Silvio Scerri was testifying this morning in libel proceedings filed against In-Nazzjon editor Alex Attard. Scerri is claiming that an article entitled “Paul Sheehan forced to shoot in the air” and published on 24 November 2014 is libelous. Journalist Joe Mikallef had allegedly insinuated that Scerri had ordered Sheehan to mislead police by claiming that he had fired shots into the air, is libellous.

“Malta was waiting for the truth about what Sheehan did. Joe Mikallef made up a story, insinuating that, not only had I called Sheehan, but that I had told him to lie to the police and say that he had fired shots into the air,” Scerri, who had followed Mallia’s lead and resigned in the wake of the scandal, told magistrate Francesco Depasquale.

From the witness stand, the former chief of staff told the court that Mikallef claimed to have been informed by “high ranking government sources,” but it would have been easy to verify whether Scerri had made any calls to Sheehan or vice-versa from the call logs which he had provided to the magisterial inquiry.

Lawyer Peter Fenech, appearing for the newspaper editor, asked the witness what he had done after he had been informed of the incident.

“I had called the Commissioner of Police [then Ray Zammit] and asked what had happened,” replied Scerri. “He reassured me that there was nothing to worry about as the shots had been fired into the air. I then called a journalist from the Times, but she had already been made aware. I made calls to the ministry’s communications officer and the OPM communications, who were together at the time, then I went to bed. I did not speak to the Minister.”

The case continues next month. Lawyer Edward Gatt is appearing for Scerri.