Maximilian Ciantar charged with Rabat break-in

Ciantar, 26, together with 19-year-old Darryl Anthony Anderson are accused of donning masks before breaking into the Rabat property, demanding the occupants hand over their money

Notorious criminal Maximilian Ciantar was in court again this afternoon, charged, together with an accomplice, with attempting to rob a farmhouse early on Sunday morning.

Ciantar, 26, together with 19 year-old Darryl Anthony Anderson, from Qormi, are accused of donning masks before breaking into the Rabat property, demanding the occupants hand over their money. Police reports say that one of the men had been armed with a knife during the break-in and that the robbers had fled when they realised that the victims had nothing to give them.

Inspector Neville Mercieca further charged Anderson with ecstasy trafficking and possession, possession of cocaine, misleading the police and slightly injuring the house’s occupant on the morning of the theft. 

Today, lawyers Noel Cutajar, legal aid to Ciantar, and lawyer Lucio Sciriha for Anderson, entered not guilty pleas before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech. 

Bail was denied to Ciantar, the court holding that he could not be trusted.

The court did, however, allow Anderson release from custody, the magistrate rebuking him for the trouble he had caused his mother, who sat at the back of the courtroom, looking utterly bereft throughout the proceedings. 

Anderson was granted bail against a deposit of €300 and a €1,000 personal guarantee, after Sciriha pointed out that he had a clean criminal record, as well as the fact that he was very young. The prosecution did not object to the defence's request.

“Don’t come in front of me again, you have your life ahead of you,” the magistrate warned the teenager. “Don’t be an idiot.”