Confession without lawyer admissible, if made before 2010 says court

Kenneth Ellul had been arrested, together with two other men, in a March 2009 drugs raid and two sachets, one containing heroin and the other cocaine, had been found on his person.

A 40-year-old Tarxien man has been jailed for nine months and fined €750 for cocaine and heroin possession, trafficking by sharing and relapsing, after a court held that police statements in which he had admitted to the charges were admissible as evidence, despite the fact that his lawyer had not been present.

Kenneth Ellul had been arrested, together with two other men, in a March 2009 drugs raid and two sachets, one containing heroin and the other cocaine, had been found on his person.

Police Inspector Johann Fenech told Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras how, during his interrogation, Ellul had asked to be taken to the Detox Centre, claiming to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Inspector Fenech had briefly left the room to find an officer to escort the accused to the Centre.

On his return, the Inspector noticed that the two small sachets of drugs that had been taken from the accused were missing from his office. One sachet was eventually found in the CID yard’s reception area, while the other was recovered from the toilet in the cell where the accused had been held, empty.

Ellul had initially denied stealing the drugs, claiming to have purchased them, but later released a statement to the police in which he admitted to having taken the drugs, explaining that he had needed them to combat his heroin withdrawal symptoms.

But during the criminal proceedings, Ellul’s lawyers had argued that these statements could not be used as evidence as he had not been granted access to a lawyer prior to his interrogation. 

But the court disagreed, noting that this right had been introduced in 2010 and so did not apply at the time and ruling that in the absence of a claim to the contrary, the accused could not be said to have been forced to release his statement.