Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1183920
NEWS 8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 NOVEMBER 2019 MATTHEW AGIUS TWO housemates have been conditionally discharged after they pleaded guilty to assault- ing a policewoman in an alter- cation in Paceville last week. Yulia Paraschyn, 24, and Kristina Trofymenko, 25, both from Ukraine and re- siding at the same address in Ta' Xbiex, were arraigned under arrest before mag- istrate Gabriella Vella this morning, charged with vio- lently resisting a police of- ficer, insulting or threaten- ing the officer, breaching the peace and disobeying a legitimate police order. Inspector Leeroy Balzan Engerer explained that the women had been arrested after creating a disturbance at Footloose bar in Paceville, whilst drunk on 7 Novem- ber. During their subse- quent arrest, the women had put up resistance and kicked a policewoman in the stom- ach. They were released on police bail until CCTV foot- age of the altercation could be retrieved. In court today the pair pleaded guilty. Their lawyer, Siegfried Borg Cole, said the women were very sorry for what they had done. After taking into account their early guilty plea, their clean criminal records and their apology, the court sen- tenced the women to a 3-year conditional discharge. Two admit to kicking policewoman in drunk Paceville disturbance The two Ukrainian women kicked a police officer in her stomach and were sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge THE owners of a quarry in Mqabba have been awarded some €141,000 in damages after part of the quarry wall collapsed onto equipment in 2010 be- cause of construction defects in a near- by playing field belonging to a govern- ment school. Applicant Innocenzo Farrugia had acquired land in Mqabba in 1992, which land included a quarry which had been operating since the late 1930s. In 2007 part of the land – in- cluding a filled-in part of the old quarry- was expropriated by the gov- ernment. This land was separated from the nine storey deep quarry by a 10 foot thick rock wall. The expropriated land was used to extend a playing field, part of the ad- jacent government primary school, by the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools. But after the playing field was fin- ished, Farrugia had complained that waste rain water was being chan- nelled into the quarry. No action was taken. Subsequently, on 28 February 2010, a substantial part of the rock wall had collapsed into the quarry below, de- stroying equipment and workshops and leaving part of the quarry inop- erable. The plaintiff and his architect, Tan- cred Mifsud, had claimed that the collapse had been caused by rainwa- ter channelled into soil near the di- viding wall, weakening it until it fi- nally gave way. The Foundation's architects, Leon- ard Zammit and Anthony Cassar, had contended that the collapse was the result of the increasing depth of the quarry, which had increased the strain on the dividing rock wall. The court had appointed archi- tect Alex Torpiano, who concluded that Mifsud's explanation was more probable, saying that the change in the rainwater management had in- creased hydrostatic pressure on the rock face. Mr Justice Francesco Depasquale observed that the collapse could have had far worse consequences had it taken place on a schoolday. It had been "amply proven" that the col- lapse was the result of the extension works carried out at the school, "in particular the installation of water drainage pipes where a large volume of water was concentrated in one place…after the plaintiff's complaint about the damage which the water could cause." The government's Property Depart- ment, Lands Authority and Educa- tion Ministry all successfully argued that they were not responsible for the damage and were non-suited. With respect to the last of these, the court noted that only the Direc- tor General of the Education De- partment, whose remit included the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools should have been made a party to the proceedings. The judge said that from the evi- dence, which had been gathered over a six year period, it emerged that the defendant Foundation had failed to take the necessary precautions be- fore starting works on the playing fields, "particularly in view of the fact that next to this development …there was a quarry with a depth of over nine storeys." The Foundation had been "well aware" of the fact that thanks to their works, a considerable amount of wa- ter was ending up in the quarry and had exacerbated the problem by di- recting the rainwater into the soil to hide the problem. Damages were quantified at €141,571.27, to which interests from 2013 – when the prospect of damage had been raised by the architect – were to be added. FTS ordered to pay Mqabba quarry owners €141,000 over 2010 playing field collapse Quarry owners awarded damages after part of a quarry wall collapsed due to construction defects in a nearby government school's playing field