Painter-decorator admits to throwing paint at neighbour's door in dispute over reed curtain

Joseph Grech from Sliema had been charged with spraying a Depiro Street façade with black paint in 2014.

The court had been told that a few days later, Grech had struck again, this time spraying light blue paint on his neighbour’s façade and windows. The light blue paint proved to be the vandal’s undoing as the victim’s son had found a bucket with blue paint with the accused’s name on it just metres away from the scene of the crime.

Prosecuting Inspector Jonathan Ransley had explained how the victim’s son had reported the vandalism to the Sliema police, telling them that the court had heard that a few days before the vandalism took place, the son had seen a suspicious-looking man staring at his mother’s house.

Some time later, the accused was seen strolling close to the Sliema police station wearing clothes stained with blue paint. District police had arrested Joseph Grech, who admitted to the act of vandalism, which he explained was in retaliation to the neighbour’s demand that he pay her €70 for a reed curtain of hers that he had allegedly damaged.

The accused had told police that whenever he remembered the money he had been asked to pay, he would vandalise the façade.

Grech has been in trouble with the law before. Last year he is reported as admitting to stealing €15,000 worth of jewels from another Sliema house, as well as to having breached previous court orders for a similar conviction dating back to 2013.

A court-appointed psychologist reported that in the years since the paint-spraying incident, the accused had made progress in overcoming the “psychological difficulties” with which he had been afflicted.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja ordered Grech to perform 200 hours community service and pay for fixing the damage he caused to the façade. The man was also placed under a treatment order. A protection order in favour of Grech’s neighbour was also issued.

Lawyers Marion Camilleri and Franco Debono represented Grech.