Hospital weapons case collapses in court

A man accused of carrying a knuckleduster at Mater Dei Hospital was acquitted after the prosecution failed at the simplest part of a criminal case: bringing the main witness to court.

In a judgment reported by Newsbook, magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace cleared 36-year-old Ciantar of all charges linked to an incident on 18 May 2024. The allegation itself was straightforward enough. A care worker was said to have seen Ciantar carrying the weapon and to have claimed he was under the influence of drugs. But that care worker did not testify.

Instead, the court heard from two Maltese colleagues who repeated what he had told them. That was not enough. Hearsay does not become proof because it is repeated twice, and the magistrate treated it accordingly.

The judgment, as described by Newsbook, also pointed to two other failures. Police did not read Ciantar his rights after his arrest. And although an affidavit confirmed that a knuckleduster was found in a cupboard, the prosecution produced no evidence tying that object to Ciantar himself.

That combination matters more than the notoriety of the defendant. Ciantar’s name is public and familiar because of a 2010 hit-and-run in which two 10-year-old sisters were run over at a pedestrian crossing, and because he has other convictions. But a criminal court is not there to convict a reputation. It convicts on evidence, properly collected and properly tested.

A hospital, an alleged weapon, an accused man with a record: those details can create the public feeling that the outcome should be obvious. The court’s job is to resist that feeling. The prosecution’s job is to do the patient work that makes a lawful conviction possible. On the facts reported, it did not.

There is still an institutional embarrassment in that. If an incident serious enough to lead to arrest cannot be carried through court because the key witness is missing, rights were not read and ownership of the object is unproved, then the weakness is not in the courtroom alone. It starts much earlier, in how cases are assembled.

Micallef Stafrace said she had no option but to acquit Ciantar of all charges.