Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/699546
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 JULY 2016 News 3 Magistrate breached ethics' code with compromising behaviour CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The conclusions of the judici- ary's watchdog sum up a saga that culminated in the investigation of the magistrate, after Scerri Her- rera and her companion, Robert Musumeci, became the target of Daphne Caruana Galizia. It was at a dinner party which Scerri Herrera hosted some time in January 2010, when her dinner guests included the broadcaster Lou Bondì and his partner Rachel Attard, that the magistrate had gloated that the press would break the news that Caruana Galizia's husband had filed a domestic vio- lence report against his wife. When Caruana Galizia got wind of the gossip – Attard had called her from Scerri Herrera's own guest bathroom that very evening, she had testified in a libel suit – she struck hard with an unstinting volley of blogs and photos of the partying magistrate that had been posted on Facebook. Those allegations became the subject of the Commission's in- vestigation, and a criminal defa- mation action that Scerri Herrera later retracted. The Commission however squarely rebuked Scerri Her- rera for three specific instances in which she compromised her integ- rity as a magistrate. The Commission said the mag- istrate would attend various par- ties during which invitees would include political party members and in the case of her own birthday party, a politician who was part of a case she presided. This alone made it incumbent on her to an- ticipate that the presence of such people compromised her. The Commission also noted that interviews the magistrate gave to three separate magazines between 2003 and 2008 had portrayed her as seeking the public's favour. But the Commission admon- ished Scerri Herrera for meeting a witness to the investigation, Greta Gatt, a mutual friend of Caruana Galizia. The three women had at- tended the same Sixth Form col- lege. The Commission was stern about the fact that Scerri Herrera had compromised her own personal dignity by entertaining a string of love letters from police inspector Dominic Micallef. Instead of repu- diating his advances, she showed the letters to her friend Greta Gatt, who then passed them on to Caruana Galizia, eventually being published on her blog. The magistrate told the Com- mission she was "not infatuated" with her suitor, whom Caruana Galizia wrote about saying that the couple had had a long love affair. The commission replied that she should have destroyed the letters instead of passing them on to Gatt. In its conclusion, the Commis- sion said the judiciary was required to behave in a way that no shadow could be cast on their integrity and personal dignity, or that their in- dependence and impartiality could be placed in doubt. In a request for comment on the Commission's findings, justice minister Owen Bonnici said it was "shameful" that the findings had come into the hands of a newspa- per. "What was said in that report did not confirm allegations of im- propriety. It underlined lifestyle changes that must be upheld by the entire judiciary," Bonnici said. Witnesses in the case included Dr Donatello Frendo, now a mag- istrate, the disbarred lawyer Pat- rick Spiteri, former Commissioner of Police John Rizzo, police union chief Inspector Sandro Camilleri, Robert Musumeci, and Daphne Caruana Galizia. Magistrate Scerri Herrera was assisted by lawyer Alex Sciberras. In January 2010, Daphne Caruana Galizia hit out at Magistrate Scerri Herrera in a scathing blogpost that was to start a cycle of vitriol and public humiliation. It turned out that at a dinner party she hosted a week earlier, Scerri Herrera was said to have gloated about the fact that MaltaToday had got wind of the fact that Caruana Galizia's husband had filed a police complaint against his wife after she flung plates at him during an argument. At the time Scerri Herrera was already in a relationship with Robert Musumeci, the Siggiewi mayor who was falling out of favour with the Nationalist Party leadership. The details of Scerri Herrera's intimate revelations were relayed to Caruana Galizia by dinner guest Rachel Attard, who had called the blogger from the magistrate's bathroom on that same night at the dinner party. The sordid 'Plategate' story was published a week later in l-orizzont on Saturday, 30 January, 2010, but on the eve Caruana Galizia started a series of blogs targeting Scerri Herrera: Facebook photos publicly available showed the magistrate letting her hair down at her birthday party, with guests that included politicians from all sides (her brother is the Labour minister José Herrera) and businessmen. Caruana Galizia also used the love letters she had been given to write on her blog, and later repeated in court, that Scerri Herrera was having an extra marital affair for five years with police inspector Dominic Micallef. She said the magistrate had hidden the letters and given them to a friend – who now turns out to be mutual college friend Greta Gatt. Caruana Galizia used her blogs to question the suitability of the magistrate. FROM 'PLATEGATE' TO MAGISTRATE'S REBUKE Dinner party blues: Plategate gossip gave rise to a vicious cycle of blogposts from Caruana Galizia (right) L-Orizzont reports the domestic violence complaint filed by Peter Caruana Galizia on 30 January 2010