Police sergeant cleared of eliminating police report in Sheehan case
A court has cleared police sergeant Leeroy Balzan on charges related to the elimination of a police accident report concerning the shooting which involved the driver of Minister Manuel Mallia in 2014.
Paul Sheehan, driver of Manuel Mallia, who at the time was Home Affairs Minister, fired shots at a car in Kappara in November 2014.
The police launched an investigation after parts of the arrest report regarding Stephen Smith – the driver who was shot at – were deleted.
Mr Balzan was accused of deleting a report on 22 November between 1 and 2pm at the Sliema Police Station.
Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard that Mr Balzan had viewed the report after the police force’s media representative requested information regarding the whereabouts of Stephen Smith and Paul Sheehan. The sergeant told the court that while he was not certain as to whether or not he closed the report after the conversation, he did not delete it.
After reviewing testimony given by PC Luke Busuttil, he could not ascertain as to whether the accused was present at the police station when the report was deleted.
“Unfortunately, this witness was not very credible,” the court noted. PC Busuttil initially said that Mr Balzan was present between 1.15 and 1.30pm when other officers had already left. He then altered his statement and said that the accused had left while he was filling in the report.
There were also CCTV footage which shows the accused walking in Rudolph Street, Sliema at 1.24pm, which verified sergeant Balzan’s statement.
Due to inconclusive evidence and reasonable doubt the court cleared PS Balzan of computer misuse, preventing the input of data, changing, deleting or adding official data, committing crimes damaging to the government, prejudicing his senior and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.
He received a one-year conditional discharge for revealing a password, granting access to official files to unauthorised personnel.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel. Inspector Sandro Camilleri and Jesmond Micallef prosecuted.
The police launched an investigation after parts of the arrest report regarding Stephen Smith the driver – who was shot at – were deleted