Man cleared of conspiring to burn the car of a man dating his ex-girlfriend

A man has been cleared of offering €700 to a drug addict in return for setting his then ex-girlfriend’s new partner’s BMW on fire, with the court ruling that the addict had not accepted the offer.

In late 2020, Police Inspectors Mario Xiberras and Jeffrey Scicluna had charged 24 year-old Zabbar resident, Luke Vella, with conspiracy to commit arson, causing his ex-girlfriend and her new partner to fear violence against them or their property and with failing to comply with three previous sets of bail conditions. Vella was further accused of recidivism.

The court observed that from the testimony gathered from various witnesses, it emerged that after ending her relationship with Vella, his ex-girlfriend had started dating another man.

Meanwhile, in a conversation with the other man’s ex-girlfriend, Vella’s mother and sister had mentioned that the defendant wanted to set fire to his car, which led her to be reluctant to allow the other man access to their child.

The ex-girlfriend, who ran a takeaway diner in Zabbar had repeatedly been told, by a man who would regularly go to the diner to beg for food and small amounts of money, that the defendant had offered him €700 to set fire to her partner’s car. It emerged from the evidence that, after being told by the vagrant that her ex-partner had sketched him a map, showing the side-street where the target lived, she and her new partner had gone to the police station, accompanied by her father and filed a report.

The man allegedly commissioned to set fire to the car also testified, explaining that he had never wanted to do what Vella was asking of him. Vella had taken him to reconnoitre the vehicle, and had prepared petrol and other items to carry out the arson attack. He told the court that Vella’s plan was to pick him up on the designated day, take him to the place where the car was parked and await the go-ahead via a phone call, before setting it on fire.

However the man did not want to do this and had gone to the Zabbar police station to file a report, telling the court that he had only listened to Vella and had no intention of complying with the instructions, did not agree with Vella and had not reached any agreement anything with him.

The court had also heard Inspector Mario Sciberras testify that localisation and call profile data showed that phones belonging to the man and to Vella had travelled together to Birzebbugia, before moving on to the location of the target vehicle in Zejtun.

The arson attack that had been planned for October 12, 2020, was called off at the last minute, due to the weather. The man who was supposed to carry it out told the court that he had used the rain as an excuse not to set fire to the car. A representative from the Meteorological Office had later confirmed to the court that rain showers and strong winds had occurred during the night between the 12 and 13 October 2020.

The woman at the centre of the saga also testified, explaining that at the time, she had ended her relationship with the defendant, although they had since resumed their relationship. 

She said she was under the impression that the man allegedly engaged to carry out the arson needed money because of problems with drug addiction. The woman testified that when he told her that he had been hired to set fire to the car, she had not been afraid that it would actually happen.

On his part, Vella had released a statement to the police denying even knowing who the owner of the vehicle in question was or having ever spoken to him. Vella also denied asking the vagrant to set fire to any cars, but said that around a month before the incident, he had asked the man to wash his cars.

He claimed that around a week before the police took his statement, the woman had told him that her new boyfriend at the time, had wanted to pay Vella back for landing him in prison in connection with a crime committed in Gozo. 

The defendant continued to deny picking up his hard-up friend to carry out reconnaissance, even when confronted with the mobile phone localisation and call data linking them together, telling the court that he had once picked him up and taken him to the woman’s shop so that she could give him some money.

Magistrate Leonard Caruana, who took over the case from another magistrate in 2021, cited previous judgments which had established that in order for the crime of conspiracy to subsist, there had to be an agreement to commit a crime.

The element of agreement did not appear to have been present, observed the court, as the person designated to carry out the arson had gone to the police station instead of committing the crime.

To the contrary, it emerged that the man had accompanied the defendant while he showed him where the car was parked, in order to listen to him, said the court, adding that the defendant had also denied the existence of any arrangement between him and the vagrant. 

The prosecution had attempted to prove the fact that the men knew each other by exhibiting the mobile phone data, which showed that between June and October 2020, the defendant had called him up 20 times on 8 different dates from Zabbar, Zejtun, Birzebbugia and Birgu.

Although the frequency of the calls coincided with the prosecution’s theory, there was no indication as to their content, said the court, adding that even had they truly been the defendant trying to convince the man to carry out the crime, he had never accepted.

Neither had the prosecution succeeded in proving the second charge, that of causing the woman to fear violence, ruled the court, because she herself had testified that even when informed of the defendant’s alleged plan, she had not been afraid.

This, together with the absence of evidence showing that any fire had been ignited, led the court to rule that the remaining charges, which dealt with arson, recidivism and bail breaches, could not subsist either. Vella was acquitted of all charges.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto assisted the defendant.