Two men cleared of 1989 theft

Emmanuel Pace and Paul Sammut had been charged with the theft of over Lm 1000 worth of toys from a Marsa warehouse in early August 1989 – a theft aggravated by amount and means. The pair had also been charged with handling stolen goods. Pace alone was accused of recidivism.

Sammut was arrested after toys from the stolen batch were spotted on sale at a market stall in Marsaxlokk in 1990, by the director of Tradeways Ltd, Robert Abela, who was the sole importer of the items.  Abela claimed to have bought them from a certain John Mamo from Qormi.

Mamo was called for questioning and had released a statement saying that he had bought the items from a certain “Paul who works at the polyclinic.”

Paul Sammut, had clarified that he did work as a health assistant at the Bormla polyclinic at the time but did not recognise Mamo and denied all knowledge of any sale of toys involving him.

Sammut, who had briefly worked as a salesman of children’s toys denied ever meeting Robert Abela and claimed to have never sold toys of the variety that he was shown by the Inspector.

The court was not convinced by the inconclusive testimony of several witnesses. At one witness John Borg, who would occasionally visit Mamo’s garage was warned and subsequently arrested by the court after his testimony was noted to be highly inconsistent. Borg was declared a hostile witness by the prosecution.

In addition to this, the court noted that the charge sheet referred to the crimes being committed “in the months preceding August 1989,” but the only crime with a date that was actually specified took place on the 4th May 1991. From the evidence, it could not ascertain that the time in which the stolen goods were alleged to have been sold fitted in the timeframe specified in the charges, remarking that “months are to be taken as months and not years.”

The court held that the manifold shortcomings resulted in the guilt of the accused not being proven beyond reasonable doubt, and declared the accused men to be innocent.