Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1490819
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 JANUARY 2023 Hefty fine, probation for couple who gambled away son's €35,000 cancer donations CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech found Ryan Debattis- ta, 31, and Nicole Bezzina, 27, guilty of fraud and money laun- dering charges. Debattista alone was also convicted of handling stolen goods and breaching a probation order. The couple had profited from the generosity shown by altru- istic individuals and football clubs, owing to the personali- ty of Debattista, a Floriana F.C. supporter, who had immediately started raising funds to allow the boy to receive treatment. The court ordered Debattista to pay a €30,000 fine, imposing a separate €20,000 fine on the mother. The €35,000 that they had received in donations were confiscated by the court, togeth- er with all the movable and im- movable property belonging to the guilty couple. The magistrate was scathing in her condemnation of the cou- ple's actions. "Instead of appre- ciating these noble gestures, the couple had shamelessly, and af- ter deceiving everyone, frittered away the fruits of their friends' labours and those of the general public, to finance their gambling addiction, a vice which only caused them loss." Representatives of the cancer charity Puttinu Cares had testi- fied that in spite of everything, the boy had received treatment and was well cared for by his parents. He had been cured of his cancer and was making con- tinuous progress, the court was told. The court told the guilty cou- ple that from now onwards, they were expected to live an exempla- ry life while bringing up their son, and would have to be very careful not to have further run-ins with the law for the duration of the su- pervision order it imposed. Failure to do so, would force the court to punish them for the very serious charges of fraud which they had admitted guilt to. The couple were sentenced to probation for three years, in view of the fact that this was a case of "self-laundering" where the fraudulent gains had subse- quently been lost by the couple, meaning that there was no net gain from the money laundering. Inspector Karl Muscat prose- cuted. Lawyer Noel Bianco was de- fence counsel. Ryan and Nicole Debattista were charged with money laundering after gambling away donations collected for their son MATTHEW AGIUS A woman who stabbed and seriously wounded her ex-partner as he tried to rape her has been acquitted of causing him grievous injury on the grounds of self-defence. The incident had happened during the early hours of May 14, 2019, at the woman's Żabbar home. Her son had been asleep in another room at the time. The woman had testified to having moved to Żabbar after her relationship with the alleged victim, a Libyan man, had ended, but he had not accepted this state of fact. During the course of that relationship, she said, she had filed sev- eral police reports against him. On the day of the incident, the man had - not for the first time- knocked on the door of the apartment, asking to be allowed in to speak to her. But after the man entered the apartment, he tried to initiate sex with the woman, who re- fused and was punched in the face for doing so. The man had followed her around the apartment, before finally cornering her in the kitchen, press- ing the woman up against the kitchen counter. She said that she had grabbed a kitch- en knife and had waved it around in a bid to frighten the man off, but the man had stabbed himself, before leaving the house. The court was later told that he had gone to a friend's house, from where he was taken to the local health centre. This incident did not appear to have deterred the man, who would still ap- pear at the woman's address and harass her, she said, adding that she had start- ed to film the incidents because of that. The court noted that the harassment had persisted even after the woman's arraignment over this incident. Under cross-examination, the woman said that she had panicked and phoned up her mother but had not informed the police of the incident, telling the court that she had been doubtful that the man would be prosecuted and that she didn't know how badly he had been wounded. Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo acquitted the woman of all charges, rul- ing the case to be one of self-defence, in view of the fact that she had just been assaulted by the man, as well as the long history of harassment which, the court said, had "shattered her life." The woman had also been acquitted of grievously injuring her then husband in a near-identical case in 2014, also on the grounds of self-defence. In that case, the man's injuries were deemed to have been self-inflicted because he had grabbed the knife that the woman had been wielding, by the blade. Inspector Eman Hayman prosecut- ed. Lawyer Stefano Filletti was defence counsel. Woman stabbed ex- partner in self-defence, court rules The woman was acquitted of causing her ex-partner grievous injury in an incident that goes back to 2019