LIVE | David Gatt denied bail, Magistrate orders accused to be indicted on charges

Compilation of evidence against alleged crime boss David Gatt continues at 9am with defence's request for bail.

Karl Stagno Navarra reporting from the law courts.

Follow his Twitterfeed at @ksnavarra or hashtag #davidgatt

 

corrected at 3:04 pm

12:10 Magistrate Anthony Micallef Trigona denies bail to David Gatt and orders accused to be indicted.

12:00 Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca says he and Assistant Commissioner Pierre Calleja had met David Gatt at the Balzan HSBC branch, days after the 2007 HSBC heist that saw criminals successfully run away with €1 million.

11:56 David Gatt was given a room inside Chris Cardona's legal office [after being dismissed from the force, Gatt studied to become a lawyer]. Police says he affixed a photo of 'The Godfather' movie in his office.

11:55 Police inspector Joseph Mercieca: police conducted search in Labour MP Chris Cardona's legal office.

11:45 PC Joseph Zarb, a police officer for the past 15 years, says he knew star witness PC Portelli, and had met with David Gatt in Paceville. Gatt often spoke academically of Sicilian mafia, its structure, and how it works.

11:43 Court resumes with testimony by PC Joseph Zarb.

10:57 During the argument, Degiorgio insisted that any police search should be conducted at the CID yard, while another police sergeant called over to the scene acceded to the request and ordered Degiorgio to drive with him to the CID yard.

10:54 PC173 says in a police search on Degiorgio's car in the Tal-Patata area around the Marsa port, another car, a Mercedes, approached them and Degiorgio's brother Alfred (aka 'il-Fulu') - another suspect in the G4S heist - emerged, and an argument ensued.

10:47 PC173 Jonathan Agius (mobile squad) says he was alerted to a report of a firearm being shot in a fight outside a hotel on 9 August. The road had been blocked by a bus and a BMW car, both drivers of which were arguing over right of way. The BMW driver was George Degiorgio (aka ic-Ciniz) - a suspect in the Group 4 Heist of 2000. David Gatt had been originally dismissed from the police corps over his conversations with another suspect in the same heist.

10:39 Car rental company director says fugitive Fabio Psaila, a suspect in the Gold Market hold-up who has been on the run since 8 December, had rented a car from her on 30 June, 2010.

10:31 Surgeon Eric Farrugia from Mater Dei hospital says he operated on Darren Debono (aka 'it-Topo'), an HSBC heist suspect who was later granted bail and held up the Gold Market jewellers' in Attard. Debono had had a bullet lodged in his cheekbone from the resulting [CORRECTED at 3:04pm] shoot-out outside the HSBC corporate headquarters, and was operated on on 3 July. The extracted bullet was passed on to the police.

10:21 David Gatt was issued with a weapons' licence on 25 February, 2010 and then applied on 2 March, 2010 to "purchase and keep" a firearm. Application was approved and Gatt later purchased a Smith and Wessen revolver. On 24 June, 2010 he applied for the purchse of another gun.

10:13 Court is told that David Gatt is licensed to hold 3 weapons: two revolvers and pistol; and had applied for target shooting license A.

10:11 New evidence presented in court are five mafia-related DVDs seized from David Gatt's parents' house and his mobile phone transcripts, which were presented by a computer expert. Gatt was said to have refused the assistance of a lawyer during interrogation and always denied the accusations brought against him.

9am Compilation of evidence against David Gatt resumes, with court considering request for bail by defence.

Described by prosecutors as the 'boss of bosses', former police inspector David Gatt is charged with association to organised crime and complicity in a string of armed hold-ups, including the theft of one million euros from the Balzan HSBC bank branch in 2007. The former police inspector is pleading not gulity to with complicity in armed hold-ups, including the €1 million heist on the HSBC Bank branch in Balzan in 2007, and last June’s attempted hold-up on the HSBC Bank’s vault at the bank’s headquarters in Qormi.

Full report on compilation of evidence against David Gatt