Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1368118
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 5 MAY 2021 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS THE Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned an involuntary homicide conviction handed to a man who ran over and killed a pedestrian in front of his 10-year-old child in 2016. Jonathan Hili had been found guilty of negligently causing the death of Andre Debattista in the horrific traffic accident. Con- tributory negligence had been found on the part of the victim, who had been crossing the road with his 10-year-old daughter at the time. The incident took place in Mellieha on 9 July 2016 when Jonathan Hili struck 40-year-old Andre Debattista with his Toyo- ta Passo as the victim was walk- ing at triq il-Marfa, Mellieha, near Ghadira Bay. Debattista, a father of two girls, died at the scene. He had been crossing the road with one of the children, aged just 10, when he was run over and killed. The child had to be treat- ed for shock. The court of magistrates had handed Hili a 12-month sen- tence, suspended for three years, together with a driving suspen- sion in 2020. Hili had appealed the convic- tion and the suspended sen- tence he received, arguing that changes in the presiding magis- trate meant that the magistrate who decided the case had barely heard the evidence. In addition, argued lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Franco Debono, the sentence com- pared unfavourably with that handed down for other, more serious, crimes. The man had suffered PTSD and flashbacks as a result of the accident, add- ed the lawyers. When one takes into account all the circumstances of the case, including the contributory negligence of the victim and the authorities who had not main- tained the road, the great psy- chological harm suffered by Hili and other factors, there was an argument for the punishment to be reduced. They also argued that the first court was not reasonable in its conclusions, and therefore the conviction ought to be quashed. The court of Criminal Appeal, presided by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, noted that the place where the acci- dent happened was so danger- ous that the police investigating the case had said that the police were expecting an accident to take place. Two days after the incident, pelican lights were in- stalled near the zebra crossing. The car had been travelling at between 57 and 65km/hr, ac- cording to a court expert. The court examined the evidence in detail and concluded that the victim had not looked properly and had not walked inside the white lines at the side of the road at all times because of trees on the pavement. The charge of reckless driving necessitated that this driving was "deliberately taking risks in driving that one must not take because of the probability of damage to third parties, as well as where one is indiffer- ent to the risks", said the court. "Certainly, the prosecution did not succeed in proving that the appellant's driving reached this level [of recklessness]," said the court. Finding the judgment of the first court as "not safe and sat- isfactory", the judge overturned the conviction and declared Hili innocent of all charges. It also ordered that a copy of the judg- ment be served upon the minis- ter of transport to avoid similar tragedies. Lawyers Franco Debono and Jason Azzopardi were defence counsel. Court overturns conviction in involuntary homicide of father crossing road with child The victim was walking in Triq il- Marfa, Mellieha, near Ghadira Bay MATTHEW VELLA THE Office of the President has issued a rare statement defending a social media post in which George Vella voiced his concern at the construction of a four-sto- rey tenement just a few metres away from a scheduled building close to his home- town street in Żejtun. Vella, a former Labour minister for the environment and later foreign affairs, defended himself from criticism that he had only woke up to the reality of urban destruction now that it struck close to where he lives. In a statement, his Office pointed out that Vella was actually a pioneer of "talk- ing and writing about environmental awareness" in te 1970s and 1980s. "Between 1996 and 1998, during his tenure as Minister in charge of the en- vironment, several actions were taken to make the then-Planning Authority more respectable and authoritative. "Those who follow this dossier with in- terest would know of the many instanc- es in President Vella's political career in which he spoke in Parliament on the need to protect the environment and to achieve sustainability." The Office said that while being criti- cised comes with any public office, the criticism had been laced "with insults, ac- cusations, innuendos and outright name calling". The Office even said Vella was proba- bly "among the very first to use the word 'uglification' of Malta" when referring to "distasteful" buildings mushrooming over the islands and "wreaking havoc on the much-cherished texture of our urban centres." "The appeal was never to stop the ur- ban development, which one realises that unfortunately has to happen to provide for population growth, the necessary in- frastructure, and social needs. The ap- peal was always directed at finding that delicate point, where there is balance between the built-up environment and the natural environment, in these small islands of ours." Upon his appointment in 2019, Vella was categorical in his inaugural address about the need for better controls by the authorities to abide scrupulously to rules and legislation. "This call, he repeated on each and every occasion he had, both in his pub- lic speeches and declarations, as well as during the innumerable occasions he had in meeting groups and organisations that paid courtesy calls to his office," the Of- fice said. Over the last months, the Office said that the President's calls had become more strident when addressing profes- sionals in the field, as he did when ad- dressing the winners of the Malta Spatial Planning Award. Vella said his appeal was for the respon- sible authorities to have "a good critical look at the end results" of their planning and permit policies. "However good and academically justi- fied such rules and regulations appear on the statute book, the end result is dreadful for anyone, even the common man in the street, to see." President Vella said he will join all well-intentioned citizens in launching a sincere, heartfelt appeal to the authorities that be to have a serious review of existing planning and building regulations, in or- der to avoid allowing more unsightly and obtrusive structures to rise all over Malta and Gozo. "It is fitting to ensure that the general public is duly informed about the count- less occasions where President Vella spoke against this outrage in urban devel- opment." The Office attached a document car- rying links to public speeches in which President Vella delivered during his Pres- idency. President hits back at social media backlash on Zejtun uglification post President George Vella