Green baseball cap gave away man charged with violent Paceville mugging

The police managed to apprehend Libyan Rawad Briga Abdelsalam, in connection with a violent mugging, after the police identified his ‘very particular baseball cap’, a court was told yesterday.

The 32-year-old quarry worker yesterday appeared before Magistrate Doreen Clarke. The case goes back to August 2016, when a 25-year-old Maltese woman was seriously injured after being stabbed and robbed, allegedly by the accused. The incident took place in Sqaq Lourdes, in the nightclub mecca.

CID officer Andrew St John was called to testify. He said he was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the crime. He recalled seeing a lot of blood splattered on the floor. He said that two French bystanders had filed a report at the police station in St Julians. The 25-year-old woman had been accompanied by a 33year-old Polish friend.

St John explained how the police, during their investigations, had collected all available CCTV footage from the area. The CCTV camera at the BOV ATM machine in Paceville proved to be the most useful. “From this camera, we could observe the assailant wearing this very particular green baseball cap. We noticed he was also wearing shorts.”

Footage from a camera stationed outside a popular burger outlet also filmed the accused running away from the scene of the crime. One particular clip, the court heard, caught the two women walking down a street slowly, with a man matching Abdelsalam’s description following closely behind. The same camera also caught the man with the cap running back up this same street.

Some days later, on 4 September 2016, the police were called to search a house that belonged to a man suspected of violent mugging. “This rang a bell and I went personally to the site. As I entered and closed the door behind me, I immediately noticed the same particular cap hanging in the hall.” An intensive search led police to also the shorts worn by the accused, inside the washing machine.

Two other police officers who were assigned with preserving the scene of the crime were also called to testify. They both recalled seeing “a great deal of blood” on the floor and on the walls.

The magistrate heard how following the arrest, Abdelsalam cooperated with the police, giving them every detail. He claimed he was drunk and under the influence of drugs when he attacked the woman.

The compilation of evidence continues in September.