Magistrate accuses media of ‘spin’ over Mellieha ‘gay’ jibe judgment, then retracts

Magistrate Carol Peralta had no option but to retract his claim that the media created a "spin" and "misinterpreted" a judgment he handed last week, when he conditionally discharged a man who was found guilty of causing permanent disability to a tourist when he deliberately ran him over in Mellieha, concluding that the accused's actions were provoked by the victim's taunting.

An irate Magistrate Peralta - who recently returned to the bench after a seven year stint as a UN judge in the Balkans - sent for MaltaToday and The Times court reporters on Wednesday and accused them of creating a "spin" over his judgment.

The case concerned Magistrate Peralta's judgment on 36-year-old Mellieha resident Alan Gauci, 36 who was let off with a conditional discharge after admitting to causing permanent disability to an Australian tourist in 2004, when he deliberately ran him over with a car at 4am, on the basis that the accused - a Mellieha resident - had defended his honour after he was called "gay" by the tourist.

Magistrate Peralta said in his judgement that the accused "lives in Mellieha, and in his psyche, had a reputation to defend in his village".

"The incident happened in Mellieha, and before fellow villagers, so the insinuation that the accused was 'gay' - even if there is nothing wrong with that - perhaps in the accused's psyche and other villagers', was not acceptable."

Gauci was conditionally discharged after the court noted that he had been provoked into reacting the way he did, when he drove his Sunbeam vehicle onto Australian national Jeremy Lalic, seriously injuring him and causing him permanent disability.

The incident happened on the night of 21 March, 2004 when Gauci and his friends were drinking at Zap's Bar in Mellieha. 

Lalic and his friend walked into the bar, and according to the prosecuting police inspector, drank heavily to the extent that they got drunk, and started to make noise and annoy patrons.

Gauci said that he did not react to gesticulations made by Lalic behind his back which implied he was a gay man, but the prosecuting inspector said he was heard saying that "this man [Lalic], deserves to be run over by a car".

The Australians were subsequently kicked out of the bar, and Gauci left some time afterwards, only to find Lalic and his friend walking up the road.

It was here that Gauci decided to drive into them, hitting Lalic and seriously injuring him.

In its judgement, the Court relied on evidence given by the prosecuting Inspector Michael Mallia, who said that the incident was a result of provocation. "In the circumstances of how things evolved, nothing would have happened had things gone differently."

But Magistrate Peralta contested the way the judgment was reported by the media, claiming that the controversy which followed had "cost him a promotion," and went as far as warning the media that from now on, he would want to read the reports before they are published.

He insisted that he was misinterpreted when referring to the community of Mellieha.

"I never pinned it down to Mellieha, but to all small village community mentalities," Peralta said, but later retracted his claim when challenged by MaltaToday to read the wording of his own judgment, which specifically talks about the Mellieha community and its mentality.

"You are right, you do have a point, I must be more careful in the future," he said, adding an  apology for his outburst.

"You see when I handed the judgment I took into consideration the fact that the incident happened eight years ago, and the accused had a clean record and besides, he was provoked," Peralta said, adding that he believed it would have been an "injustice" had he handed Gauci an effective jail term or a suspended sentence.