Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/262615
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2014 7 News Three-year probation for making false police report Legal procurator, 53, claimed police inspector pressured her to retract report filed against husband over domestic abuse CHRIS MANGION A legal procurator has accused a police officer of pressuring her into changing her version of events when filing a report against her husband. Legal Procurator Juanita Fenech, 53 of Attard, claimed investigat- ing officer Elton Taliana exerted pressure on her to change her ver- sion of events when filing a report against her husband over domestic abuse. She was later charged with filing a false report and, taking the wit- ness stand in her own defence, told the court that Taliana placed pres- sure on her to recount a different version of the incident involving an altercation with her husband. On 5 November, 2010, Fenech called the Birkirkara police station alleging that her estranged hus- band Mario Fenech had insulted her outside her residence. The couple was undergoing separation procedures. Mario Fenech was charged with domestic abuse and granted bail. But when his bother Alexander Fenech and his wife Angela Fenech corroborated his alibi, the police arrested Juanita Fenech. Eventu- ally, after 11 hours under arrest, she released a statement saying she was not sure that the person who had insulted her was her husband. Juanita Fenech's father, George Cardona, and his son Jamie Car- dona told the court that the ac- cused had informed them that her husband had insulted her. Defence lawyers Joseph Giglio and Stephen Thake also told the court that they had advised their client to file a po- lice report over the insults. But Magistrate Anthony Vella said that Fenech's version was pep- pered with inconsistencies. "She claims that she was scared of the police who allegedly put pres- sure on her. She was also scared of her allegedly violent husband. If her claims of abuse were true, no pressure would have forced the victim to change her version un- less the report was false in the first instant," Magistrate Vella said. The court decreed that the most fitting punishment would be com- munity work rather than jail time. "She must be kept under a watchful eye because if she continues down this road, someone is going to get horribly hurt," the court said. Juanita Fenech was convicted of filing a false report and placed under a three-year probation order and handed a general temporary interdiction for 10 years. Dr Joseph Giglio appeared for the accused, while lawyers Arthur Az- zopardi and Kathleen Grima ap- peared on behalf of Mario Fenech. Boxer Scott Dixon acquitted of cocaine possession SACHET seized from Scottish boxer Scott Dixon contained pa- racetamol, not cocaine Chris Mangion Scottish boxer Scott Dixon was acquitted of simple possession of cocaine after the white dust found was certified to be para- cetamol. The 38-year-old boxer was charged by inspector Pierre Grech after a search by police officers found a sachet of white powder on Dixon in 2011, in St Julian's. However court expert Godwin Scerri told the court the powder was nothing but paracetamol – a drug that can be purchased over the counter. Magistrate Edwina Grima said the prosecution failed to prove that the accused had in his pos- session any illegal substance and acquitted him of all charges. Back in 2009, the Scottish boxer and others were charged with conspiring to traffic half a ton of cannabis. Law yer Lucio Sciriha appeared for Dixon. Scott Dixon