Magistrate testifies against convict who attacked her during a sitting

In an unusual sitting held this morning, a magistrate heard another serving magistrate testify how violent criminal Pasqualino Cefai threatened her and assaulted several policemen in her courtroom last October.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman was the main witness in the compilation of evidence against Cefai, who is accused of assaulting police officers and threatening a magistrate.

She testified how she had just reprimanded Cefai  – already serving a jail sentence for stabbing a man 14 times in a Gozo courtroom - for muttering under his breath during a sitting in her courtroom for a separate case.

“He got very agitated,” said Hayman, “police tried to calm him down but he attacked them, tearing his own jacket in the struggle. He beat them hard, especially [Inspector] Johann Fenech.”

Cefai’s lawyer, Noel Bianco, attempted to explain to presiding magistrate Audrey Demicoli that his client was suffering from depression, but this was not accepted by Hayman, sitting beside Demicoli on the bench.

"I see a lot of people suffering from depression in my courtroom, this behaviour is not acceptable. He threatened me... threatened to kill me, to send his brothers after me” she said.

Cefai interrupted at this point, apologising for his behaviour, explaining that he was “offended by the way the police had tried to take his fingerprints”.

The court registrar who was present during the incident also testified. “Sometime towards the end of the sitting, one accused (Cefai) kept looking back and saying something. The magistrate told him to stop and he started shouting and asking why the case was being heard without his lawyer.”

Cefai was being represented by another lawyer from his legal team during that sitting.

The magistrate declared Cefai to be in contempt of court and ejected from the courtroom, at which point, the witness continued, “he started to swear and blaspheme. I heard him accuse inspector Fenech of picking on him.

"He was saying many things to the magistrate but I can’t say exactly what was said as I was trying to take down what the magistrate was saying,” said the registrar. “I started to think that he was going to injure a policeman. They could not control him.”

Magistrate Hayman declared that insofar as she is aware, there was no CCTV in her courtroom, however the court was told that CCTV footage from the court lockup was available and so appointed an expert to extract stills from the recording from the lockup. The defence objected to this, saying that these are unnecessary expenses, but was overruled.

The compilation of evidence will continue on 3 March.