Qormi man jailed for beating neighbour with shotgun

A man who said “I want to kill you” as he beat, with the butt of a shotgun, the husband of a woman whom he had been harassing, was jailed for nine months for grievous bodily harm after inexplicably only being charged with that offence and not attempted murder.

54-year-old John Grech, from Qormi, had been charged with causing grievous injuries to Anthony Spiteri with Spiteri’s own Benelli shotgun as Spiteri was leaving his house to go hunting on the 11 October 2011.

Spiteri had told the court how the night before, his wife had told him that Grech had pinned her against the garage door and tried to bundle her into his car. Spiteri wanted to report the incident to the police immediately but the wife held him back, saying that it would be better to go the next day “so as not to alarm the children.”

The next day, said the victim, as he was opening the rear door of his van to put his hunting dog and shotgun in the back, he turned and found himself face to face with the accused. He said that he had told the accused to leave them in peace, but as he turned to get into the van, the accused laid into him.

Grech took Spiteri’s unloaded shotgun from him and hit him with the buttstock repeatedly. Hearing the commotion outside, the wife tried to intervene, also receiving a blow with the shotgun for her trouble.

Spiteri claimed that after the comprehensive beating, in which he suffered a broken hand, nose and several facial lacerations, the accused informed him that he was going to tell the police that Spiteri had come after him with his shotgun.

Spiteri’s wife, Grace, had also testified, telling Magistrate Doreen Clarke how the accused had been making repeated sexual advances,  which she had kept a secret from her husband to keep the peace, for some time.

“Stop. You are going to kill me, ” she said her husband had told the accused, to which she said he had answered “I want to kill you.”

The accused, Grech, had also testified. He said that as he was walking towards his car, which was parked near Spiteri’s, the latter had hit him with his shotgun without warning. He claimed to have struggled with the man and eventually succeeded in wresting the weapon from him. He took the weapon to the police station as evidence, he said.

However, the court noted that Grech’s slight injuries – a black eye and some scratch marks - did not tally with his version of events. It was obvious, said the court, that Spiteri’s injuries (lacerations to his face and head, a broken nose and hand) were the result of several hard blows.

It also noted that the shotgun, aside from being covered in blood, had been damaged in the assault and held that this was a result of it being used to deliver repeated blows.

The court found Grech guilty of grievous bodily harm, aggravated by the use of arms proper, voluntary damage to property (in this case, the shotgun) and breaching the peace. Grech was cleared of relapsing, as the prosecution had not exhibited an authenticated copy of his previous sentence from 1983.

Grech was sentenced to nine months imprisonment and ordered to pay €103.64 in costs.

In awarding punishment, the court said it had to take into account the serious nature of the crime, as well as the accused's “almost clean” police conduct and felt the minimum punishment would be more fitting