He was granted provisional liberty against a personal guarantee of Lm200 and furthermore ordered to sign at the St Julians Police Station once a week. The incident took place on the 10th May and was caught on tape in a four-minute video clip taken from a balcony of a St Julians apartment in St George’s Road.

Appearing in court, the ex-Special Assignments Group member and former official to Minister Michael Frendo, pleaded not guilty.

The incident, which was investigated by Malta Today  revealed that the lady had attracted police attention by hooting repeatedly at a coach which had blocked the road for several minutes. The elderly lady appeared agitated after the police sergeant had planted himself in the way of her shutting her car door. She in fact attempted to physically get him out of the way.

At one point, the police officer, continually talking on his mobile phone, reacted by kneeing the elderly French woman who seemingly lost consciousness for more than three minutes.  The police officer seemed to remain unperturbed.

When the woman regained her senses, an ambulance arrived on scene and the staff seemed to try to convince the French woman to board the ambulance.  However, the footage ends with the ambulance leaving, the woman still in her car and the police officer nowhere to be seen.

At the time, the incident was not reported to the police.

The defence, led by Lawyer Jason Azzopardi, asked for a copy of the video recording and for copies of the medical certificate and photographs of injuries the policeman had allegedly sustained in the incident.

Inspectors Simon Galea and Martin Sammut led the prosecution.

The court was presided over by Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona.