A 39-year-old man from Guinea was cleared of charges related to theft from a residence in Hamrun.
Abou Diallo was arraigned in court charged with multiple attempts to break into a residence in Triq Eugenio Borg in Hamrun. The prosecution presented four occasions where Mr Dialla allegedly tried to break into the house, all of which date back to 2014.
The man was also being charged with causing damage to a car in Marsa.
The court, presided by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, heard how the man had managed to get into the veranda of the house twice and once, in the middle of the night, the man managed to get into the bed room.
The residence sits in a ground floor at a block of flats.
The court noted that the evidence is only based on eye-witnesses, including the owners of the house and a neighbour, Mr Shaun Debono.
Erminia Borg told the court how the first time she had seen a shadow of the man was in her bedroom. She said that once she started screaming, the man jumped off from the window. She explained that on this first occasion, she had not seen the man's face.
She then told the court that she had seen the same person, whom she identified in court, another two times in the house's veranda. The court also noted that the couple had seen the man multiple times lurking around their house, but they did not always file a report to the police. The woman insisted that she felt she was being stalked. It noted that in all of the occasions, nothing was reported to have been stolen.
Meanwhile, the husband, Mr Carmelo Borg told the court that once, while they were asleep, his wife had woken him up telling him that someone entered their bedroom and jumped off the window. He said that he did not see anything and thought that his wife was dreaming.
Some days later, Erminia called her husband and told her that a dark-skinned man was tapping on the balcony's door and every time she went to look outside, the man would run away.
The Magistrate noted that the man tried to attract attention, which is not what a thief would do, as normally a thief would do whatever is possible not to be seen.
A neighbour, who was called to the witness stand, said that he had seen the man trying to open a sliding window but he never saw him get inside.
The Magistrate noted that the accused had been previously arraigned in court charged with harassing the couple. The court had handed him an 8-month prison sentence.
Diallo was also charged with damaging a car parked in Marsa. The incident dates back to August of 2014. The damage to the car costs around €250. The court argued that the CCTV footage stills presented in court could not sufficiently prove that it was Diallo who committed the crime.
The accused was cleared of all charges.
Inspector Sarah Magri led the prosecution.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/1MSWGwN
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