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24 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 APRIL 2019 MATTHEW AGIUS DRAGANA Mijalkovic, a 44-year-old Serbian resident of St. Paul's Bay, has been jailed for five and a half years after she was cleared of the murder of David Grant and Neville Ayers, but convicted of know- ingly allowing the men to suffer in circumstances which could probably cause serious injury or death. British expats Grant, 67, and Ayers, 78, both died in an apartment in St. Paul's Bay, which they had shared with Mijalkovic. The woman had filmed the two men as their health dete- riorated, ostensibly in an ef- fort to exculpate herself from any responsibility. This, how- ever backfired, with nagistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech de- scribing the films as "degrad- ing and disgusting", adding that the men's deteriorating health was taken advantage of in a "scandalous and obscene" manner. The men needed help and not more ridicule, said the magistrate, decrying the filthy conditions in which they died. The magistrate noted that the woman would sarcasti- cally refer to the elderly men as "my darling" and "my love." Aside from keeping them in a state which was harmful to their health, Mijalkovic ended up robbing the men not only of their money, but also of their dignity, said the magis- trate. Magistrate Frendo Dimech went on to note that when the accused had realised that they needed hospital treatment, she had started filming the men, and had still left them in their pitiful situation. "It can't be said that she closed her eyes to their suffer- ing because she opened them wide to take the videos." In her considerations on punishment, the magistrate said that this was not an iso- lated act, but a series of "heart- less and cruel actions, lacking in every aspect of humanity" spread out over a period time. The court, noting that the woman was a first time of- fender in Malta, also observed that there was more than one victim and described the ac- cused as a serious threat to society. Mijalkovic was "a woman who had no qualms about liv- ing off elderly and vulnerable men, who she turned her back on and also filmed, when they needed her help. Her actions require that she be incarcer- ated and removed from circu- lation." Once she has served her sen- tence, Mijalkovic, whose per- mit to stay in Malta had long since expired, is to be removed from the country. She was also ordered to pay €14,514.48 in court fees. Inspectors James Grech and Fabian Fleri prosecuted. Lawyer Yanica Bugeja was le- gal aid counsel to the accused. Woman jailed for neglect which led to the death of two British men The court said that while the woman had not directly caused the two men's death, she had done nothing to prevent it, choosing instead to take videos of their suffering Dragana Mijalkovic was sentenced to five and half years in prison

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