Prison warder needed stitches after being elbowed by luggage thief

A court has heard how a young female prisoner from England allegedly elbowed a prison guard in the face after refusing to be strip-searched, while she was being held on charges of stealing luggage from the airport.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja was told how 20 year-old Shannon Leigh Williams from Portsmouth had refused to be strip-searched after being noted trying to conceal something on her person. The item was later found to be a mobile SIM.

Williams was being held at the Corradino Correctional Facility in connection with a separate case, when she was accused of stealing a suitcase from the arrivals luggage carousel at Malta International Airport in June.

Correctional officer Alison Vassallo testified how at around 3pm on the 1 August, Williams had been escorted back to prison after collecting her personal effects from the guest house she had been staying in.

She explained that prisoners are always strip-searched and have their belongings scrutinized before admission to prison.

During the search of William’s luggage Vassallo noted that the prisoner was putting something inside a folder of letters, which had already been checked. A subsequent search turned up a mobile phone SIM card.

Vassallo’s superior, Major Mary Azzopardi, ordered the girl be strip-searched a second time to ensure that she was not smuggling anything else. Williams, however refused to submit to the second strip-search.

“All of a sudden she began shouting, saying it was ‘all bullshit’... that we are ‘full of shit’, that we are ‘all bitches’ and refused to go into the search room. She became more aggressive, punching, kicking us and an order was given that she had to be taken to isolation cell. I grabbed her from an arm and my colleague from the other.

“But she managed to get out of my grip, turned and elbowed me in the chin. I was covered in blood and ended up at the health centre having five stitches to my chin,” she told the magistrate.

Vassallo described the action as deliberate and denied using excessive force to control the inmate and told the court that Williams had also been trying to get into fights with other inmates.

Inspector Spiridione Zammit, prosecuting, exhibited a total of 13 reports made by prison warders since her admission.

Williams had been remanded in custody in June after she was charged with stealing a suitcase belonging to a Maltese couple returning to Malta on a flight from Spain. She had been arrested days later after the couple fortuitously spotted her in Xemxija carrying a handbag and wearing sneakers identical to ones which had been in the stolen suitcase.

The two cases will continue to be heard on August 27.

Lawyer Noel Bianco appeared for Williams.