Man charged with falsely accusing policeman of sending nude photos to minor

A 30-year-old man from Swatar has been charged in connection with an attempt to frame a police officer for sending an explicit photograph to a “minor”, using the gay dating application Grindr.

Inspectors Sylvana Briffa, John Spiteri and Paula Ciantar arraigned the man, Jackson Micallef, before Magistrate Marseanne Farrugia this morning, charging him with creating false traces of an offence by fabricating a screenshot of an online conversation between the policeman and Micallef, who was posing as an underage boy.

The police had begun investigating the case after the Ministry of Home Affairs was sent a pen drive containing screenshots purporting to show an explicit conversation between the officer and the “boy,” complete with nude photographs of the officer.

But the court was told how police investigations showed that the officer had ignored the messages from the accused when he had told him that he was underage. The accused then began a different conversation with the officer - this time posing as a person above the age of consent - and exchanged some explicit photographs with the officer.

The accused had saved a screenshot of the pictures in the seconds before the photographs were automatically erased by the application, which does not save records of conversations conducted through it.

He then allegedly created a photomontage of the two conversation threads, making it appear as though the nude pictures were sent to the “minor” and transferred it on to the pen drive. The drive was handed to Ministry for Home Affairs by a government employee who knows both Micallef and the police officer.

Micallef pleaded guilty to charges of creating a false evidence trail in order to falsely accuse someone, misuse of electronic communications equipment and with being a recidivist. 

Legal procurator and former police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit, defending Micallef, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. The court was told that all witness evidence had already been gathered by the inquiring magistrate. 

Micallef was released on bail against a personal guarantee of €3,000 and ordered to sign the bail book twice a week.