Attard, who is employed by a pizza delivery company, was charged with disobeying legitimate orders and assault, breaching the peace, recidivism, and breaching two separate sets of bail conditions.

The police received a report of a man harassing pedestrians in Valletta. It was argued that he spat at, intentionally bumped into, insulted, and intimidated passersby with his dog – a German Shepherd.

When approached by the authorities, he insulted and spat at them too – this resulted in his arrest. He further assaulted and injured an officer while at the police station.

His defense counsel – lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri – questioned the inspector about a prior incident, implying that Attard was harassed first. 

The inspector replied saying that Attard had been approaching many people in the capital and that he did not give the police time to ask what led to the incident since he assaulted the officers immediately as they approached him. His lawyers entered a not-guilty plea and requested bail.

Attard was handcuffed inside the courtroom due to being “somewhat agitated” outside, but Magistrate Noel Bartolo ordered the removal of the restraints.

The prosecution objected to his release both due to the nature of the accused crimes and because he has been involved in a similar incident before. The inspector stated that Attard had been convicted on the same charges after a previous incident and the defendant interjected saying he had not been convicted.

Debono argued that there was no risk of him tampering with the evidence since all witnesses were police officers. He is also presumed innocent at this stage, has a job, and is claiming to be attacked first, the lawyer said.

Despite this, his bail request was rejected due to the nature of the charges and because he did not offer the guarantees required by law.

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