Courtroom lunge at magistrate earns Pasqualino Cefai two years in jail

Gozitan hardman Pasqualino Cefai has been jailed for 28 months in connection with a courtroom fracas during which he had threatened a magistrate and attacked several police officers.

Three RIU units and district police officers had to intervene in Magistrate (now judge) Miriam Hayman’s courtroom after Pasqualino Cefai, 39, of Zebbug, Gozo, had lunged at the magistrate in October 2014. A police officer was slightly injured in the ensuing struggle.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli had heard how on the day in question, Cefai had a sitting before magistrate Hayman. When the case was called and his lawyer did not appear, having been delayed by a sitting in a different court, magistrate Hayman decided to continue hearing evidence in his absence.

Magistrate Hayman had testified in these proceedings, telling the court that the fracas was triggered when, after Cefai repeatedly ignored her warnings to stop shouting, she had declared him to be in contempt of court.

Police inspector Johann Fenech testified that he had just left the courtroom to call a witness. He described how, upon returning to the hall, he had found Cefai to have practically climbed on to the magistrate's platform, from where he was hurling threats and using obscene language in her regard. He would “find her outside and pay her back,” he promised.

The inspector's attempts to calm Cefai's fury had the opposite effect, leaving Fenech and three police officers desperately trying to restrain the now doubly-enraged man. Cefai tore off his suit jacket and grabbed Inspector Fenech by the throat, ripping his tie, before proceeding to threaten the officer with death and harm to his loved ones.

Hayman had then ordered Cefai's arrest. After a struggle, he was handcuffed and led away to the court lock-up, where after being briefly calmed down he erupted into violence once more, slightly injuring an officer with his still-cuffed hands. Whilst in the police lock-up, Cefai started banging his head against lockers and smashed a mirror, injuring himself in the process.

As a result of the courtroom commotion, Cefai had been charged with 10 offences, including assaulting and threatening a magistrate, assaulting and threatening a public servant, violently resisting a public servant in the execution of his duties, causing slight injuries to a police officer, disobeying a lawful order made by a police officer, voluntarily causing damage to a court window, assaulting a magistrate and police officers, disturbing the public peace, using blasphemous language and being a recidivist.

Cefai did not respond to any questions during his interrogation and chose not to testify in his defence. His lawyer, Edward Gatt, had explained that his client had taken great offence at the trial continuing in Gatt's absence and had felt antagonised, adding that Cefai had admitted to him that he should not have reacted the way he did.

In her sentence on the matter, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli agreed that the accused had a right to be assisted by the lawyer of his choice, but pointed out that he was not entitled to exercise this right through aggression, threats and insults. The court however took his agitation into consideration when assigning punishment.

The court opined that lawyers should reciprocate the court's efforts to inform them of sittings by doing their utmost to be present when their cases are called.

Police inspector Darryl Borg prosecuted. Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo were Cefai's defence counsel.