Man lands in court after hurling neighbour’s scooter into construction site

A man has been charged with threatening a number of police officers and injuring one after allegedly throwing a neighbour’s scooter into a construction site

A violent altercation between a man and police officers resulted in charges after the man reportedly hurled a neighbor's scooter into a construction site, injuring an officer and threatening others.

Inspectors Gabriel Kitcher and Kurt Farrugia arraigned 32-year-old Jonathan Aquilina, a plasterer from Marsascala, before Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo on Tuesday morning.

Inspector Kitcher testified about what led to the man’s arrest, telling the court how the police had received a request for assistance on 26 March, during an incident where the defendant was being aggressive.

Officers had gone to the place specified in the report and, after being unsuccessful in calming Aquilina down, arrested him. In the process of handcuffing the suspect, a police officer had suffered slight injuries, he said.

In court today, the defendant was seen to have a large abrasion to the right hand side of his head.

Defence lawyer Roberto Spiteri asked the inspector what had led to the report. “The police were informed that the argument was over a scooter parked outside Jonathan’s residence,” he replied.

The lawyer claimed that the defendant had previously filed a report about incidents involving his neighbours, who he said had been provoking him over a span of time. Aquilina is understood to have picked up a scooter belonging to his neighbours and thrown it into a construction site.

Aquilina was charged with insulting and threatening no less than eight police officers, and slightly injuring one. He was also accused of attacking the police officers and disobeying their legitimate orders.

Further charges of insulting and threatening two civilians, one of whom is understood to be the scooter’s owner, damaging the scooter and breaching the peace were also pressed.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges. Spiteri asked that his client be released on bail.

The prosecution objected to the request on the basis that civilian witnesses were yet to testify. The defendant had requested police assistance and had then used violence towards them, said Inspector Kitcher, arguing that this showed the defendent to be untrustworthy.

Spiteri disagreed with the trustworthiness argument, pointing out that the issue of bail depended on the accused’s criminal record and not the merits of the case, reminding that Aquilina was presumed innocent at this stage

“Also the prosecution’s star witnesses are police officers. With regards to the civilians, the accused had requested assistance in their regard and ended up being arrested himself.”

The defendant had also been injured, stressed the lawyer. “God forbid he wasn’t agitated, they disfigured him,” Spiteri submitted, arguing that it was unrealistic to expect a person making a police report to be calm.

After hearing the parties’ submissions, the court upheld the request for bail, releasing the defendant from arrest against a deposit of €1,500 and a €10,000 personal guarantee.

A protection order was also issued in favour of the police officers involved.