Lifetime ban for poacher who shot down eagle at Binġemma

A poacher who shot an eagle at Binġemma has been given a lifetime hunting ban.

Christopher Mercieca, 40 and from Santa Venera, was fined €5,000 for the crime. Mercieca pleaded guilty to shooting and killing the protected short-toed eagle, as well as unlawful possession of a number of protected species, both alive and dead.

Mercieca was identified as the poacher responsible for that crime through

Footage provided by third parties, who filmed the incident and alerted the police, helped to identify Mercieca. Police received a report on Tuesday evening about the 6:15pm shooting in the limits of Mġarr, Malta. Mercieca was arrested later that evening, then released after a few hours.

He was re-arrested on Thursday after the police obtained footage of the shooting.

He registered an admission after consulting his lawyer, Edward Gatt, and confirmed that plea after being warned of the implications by the court.

Magistrate Jean Paul Grech said that the court would not impose an effective jail term given the early guilty plea, but would fine him €5,000 – payable in €150 monthly instalments – and revoke the accused’s hunting licence to the maximum permitted by law.

The court banned Mercieca from holding any such licence for life.