Jailed for drug trafficking

David Gatt, 35 of Gzira, also known as 'Il-Gulija' admitted to the charges of trafficking in heroin in various places around the island.

He was arrested by Drugs Squad officers on August 14 as he roamed the streets of Gzira, and was seen meeting people and selling heroin sachets.

The arrest was effected while Gatt was released on bail on a string of other cases.

He is currently awaiting trial for allegedly selling a lethal dose of heroin to 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler in 2001, and also faces charges after being caught  receiving drugs during a contact visit with members of his family in prison.

Gatt was charged with Bowdler's death in 2009, three years after an entire family was jailed for letting  the 18-year-old woman die in a field from a drug overdose in 2001.

He denied all charges connected to Bowdler's tragic death and having sold her the lethal dose of heroin.

In 2006, Concetta Decelis, her husband Carmel and their son Jason were jailed for over 40 years between them for allowing Rachel Bowdler to die when they dumped her in a field in the limits of Mġarr.

Bowdler was found in a field in the area known as Ras il-Ġebel on 13 May, 2001.

Following a trial by jury in June 2006, Decelis was jailed for 15 years and her son Jason for 25 in the first ever conviction in Malta for what is known as murder by omission.

The father, Carmel Decelis, was jailed for eighteen months as he was cleared of murder but found guilty of involuntary homicide.

On handing down judgment, the court pointed out that they had left the girl to die to avoid getting into trouble.

Their persistent omission lasted 12 hours in all - a time lapse in which, the prosecution had insisted, the girl could have been saved.