Mugger is jailed after one crime too many

A self-confessed drug addict who assaulted and tried to rob an 81-year-old man had been jailed for just over five years after a court found that he had wasted several opportunities to get his life back on track.

Simon Borg, 33, was accused of attempted theft aggravated by violence and  with having slightly injured the victim last October in Zerafa Street, Marsa.

He was further charged with having committed the crime during the operative period of a suspended sentence, breaching bail and relapsing.

The 81-year old man had been chatting to an elderly friend when something brushing against his back trouser pocket.

He turned around and spotted Mr Borg, who pushed him to the ground. He landed face down beneath the pavement.

As he struggled back to his feet, blood streaming from a cut above his eye, the elderly man had seen Mr Borg as though about to strike him when somebody behind him suddenly halted him in his tracks.

“Why pick on that man? Strike me not him. He’s a poor old man,” the voice had called out, startling Mr Borg who was ordered to sit down and not move.

That voice had belonged to a stranger who had been driving by and had stopped to help. He was never identified.

Mr Borg...