Bomb scare disrupts court sittings… again

2010 may have topped the bomb threat record for Malta's courts with 17 calls, but six months into 2012 and already 13 hoax calls have disrupted the Maltese justice system this year.

Another bomb scare Monday morning disrupted all Valletta court sittings, including the appeal by two defrocked priests found guilty of sexually abusing teenage boys who lived in the St Joseph residential home in Santa Venera in the 1980s and 1990s.

A judge last week defied the umpteenth bomb threat at the law courts as he continued to hear submissions on the defrocked priests' case. The judge was heard saying: "whoever wants to leave may leave the law courts, but I will be proceeding with the hearing." In fact, nobody left the appeals court.

According to statistics tabled in parliament by Justice Minister Chris Said back in 2010, there were a total of 17 bomb threat calls made to the courts in 2010, followed closed by 2009 with 15 calls. Last year, 12 bomb threats were recorded.

Such bomb threats occur and disrupt the work of the courts for a number of hours till the buildings are searched and then declared safe for work to resume.

In May last year, a man who was found guilty of making two bomb threats from a phone booth to avoid having to attend court sittings, was jailed for two years and fined €575.

The man was found guilty of making two phone calls to police headquarters in Floriana from a phone booth opposite the law court in Valletta last December. Ironically, Magistrate Doreen Clarke had handed down judgment on his case at the same time another bomb threat stopped the courts for about an hour.

In a separate case, another man was jailed for six months a week later after he admitted having been responsible for a bomb hoax at the law courts. He admitted having made the bomb threat on emergency telephone number 112, causing the law courts building to be evacuated.

In April this year, Minister Said held meetings with top police, army and court officials to discuss ways to prevent bomb threats which were disrupting justice proceedings. Obligatory security screening of everyone entering courts and harsher jail sentences are the other proposals that emerged from last April's meeting.