One of the two police officers who interrogated Nicholas Azzopardi at the Floriana headquarters had deceived the police force and the government into believing he had saved a woman from drowning 10 years ago.
Police Sergeant Adrian Lia, who interrogated Azzopardi at the police depot where the deceased sustained the injuries leading to his death 13 days later, had duped the nation into believing he had behaved heroically by jumping into the ice cold sea in Sliema to save Mary Farrugia on 23 December 1997.
Lia – then a 23-year-old police constable – was awarded a gold medal for bravery after he claimed to have jumped into the sea to save 54-year-old Farrugia from Sliema as she was drowning near Qui Si Sana at around 5.15am.
His fabricated story not only eventually embarrassed the government and the police, but also made it to the official police press releases issued by the corps.
In fact, his alleged heroic act was widely reported in the press, with journalists taking his word about his selfless deed and reporting how he had braved the stormy seas to rescue Farrugia, who according to the police statements was some 15 metres offshore.
Also according to the official version, Lia went on site together with Sliema Duty Sergeant Carmel Pace – who later transpired did not even go there.
His story went as far as the office of the prime minister, where former minister Joe Mizzi, together with police commissioner George Grech, had awarded him a gold medal for bravery.
“In Malta we hear more negative criticism than positive feedback about the police,” Mizzi had declared at the presentation of the medal at police headquarters on 8 January 1998. “It’s true there are shortcomings, but acts like the one committed by Constable Lia show there are responsible people in the police corps.”
Responsible indeed; barely two months later, Lia’s fabrication was proved beyond doubt when all the eyewitnesses recounted how he did not even touch the sea, let alone dive in to save the woman.
On 7 March of that same year, The Times reported how Lia was about to face disciplinary procedures after he was found to have deceived the police and the government.
Lia was stripped of the decoration and a police investigation had concluded that “steps should be taken” against him for his false reports.
The investigations were led by Superintendent Paul Debattista, whom several witnesses had told that Lia had never dived in to save the woman. On the contrary, one of the eyewitnesses told the police that he actually helped the policeman lift the woman to safety after another woman had persuaded the woman to swim ashore.
The police had said originally the woman was about 15 metres offshore while the eyewitnesses said she was a mere two metres away from the rocks.
The official police report, filed at the Sliema police station, said there was a police sergeant at the scene while eyewitnesses said Lia was alone. Initial reports also said the policeman braved the rough seas, while eyewitnesses said the sea was calm.
And yet, Lia, who is a member of the police corps since July 1992, was eventually promoted to the rank of police sergeant.
Meanwhile it is unclear whether Lia himself is one of the two police officers who allegedly suffered scratches on his forearms and chest as he claimed he was “trying to save Nicholas Azzopardi from jumping off a wall”.
The other police officer interrogating Azzopardi was Reuben Zammit.

kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt