French students broke bench for barbeque wood and to fix bed

Two French students were taken to court today and ordered to pay the costs of a bench then vandalised in St Julian's. The two were arrested after a tip-off to the police. Jean Fontaine Alexis Marius and Bernard Benjamin, both 20-year-old students of English, admitted to vandalising the wooden bench. One said he needed wood for a barbecue while the other said he needed slats to place under his mattress. The incident happened in Dragonara Road, St Julian's, at about 5 a.m. Magistrate Gabriella Vella conditionally discharged them for a year and ordered them to jointly pay the €370 costs of the bench by 6 p.m. today.