Murder victim's heirs awarded €90,000 compensation

A 69-year-old man has been ordered to fork out almost €90,000 in compensation to the heirs of a man he killed following an argument over the pruning of a tree in a Marsalforn car park one afternoon in June 2013.

Gozitan pensioner Gerald Galea, from Żebbuġ, has already served his 15-month jail term for murdering John Spiteri, 54, after the court found his crime had been excusable since there had been an element of provocation. He had been cleared of attempting to murder the victim’s son. 

The incident had taken place on June 19, 2013, when Mr Galea had angrily told the father and son to stop pruning a protected tamarisk tree at a car park in Qbajjar and insisted he would not tolerate the two setting up a kiosk there.

The three got into an altercation and at one point, Mr Galea got into his Daihatsu Terios and drove at full speed at the father and son. 

While the son managed to get out of the way in time, his father was not as lucky and was crushed by the car. He died in hospital some five hours later. The court had heard that the car had “shuddered”, like it was going over a sleeping policeman.

Medical experts testified that Mr Spiteri died of injuries caused by being run over by...