Trapper's conviction overturned on appeal

A court has overturned a man's conviction for illegal trapping on appeal, finding that it had not been satisfactorily proven that he was on the site where illegal trapping was taking place.

Emanuel Muscat, of Dingli, had been fined €700 by a magistrates' court when he was found guilty of trapping during the closed season on November 4, 2012.

He argued before the Appeals Court that he was not on the site where the police reported finding traps and nets and denied a police sergeant's assertion that he had admitted to trapping. He clarified that he had only admitted that the traps belonged to him, but, he said, the nets were not his.

He produced a doctor's certificate to show that on the day he was at home on sick leave.