‘Bench vandals did us a favour’

A wooden bench in St Julian's which landed two Frenchmen with a court-imposed fine for vandalism was already broken and had been lying in a state of disrepair for months, Times of Malta has learnt. The vertical wooden planks had been snapped into two and the iron legs bent at an angle after a driver had accidentally reversed into it months ago. “It’s quite unfair to make those two young men pay €370 as the bench had been broken for ages,” Retailer Edward Maggi said. “They did us a favour by removing the broken planks – that bench was a true eyesore, bang in the middle of such a popular tourist area. We had been complaining about it to the local council for ages but no action had been taken.” On Wednesday, student Jean Fontaine, 20, and his apprentice plumber friend Bernard Havez, also 20, admitted to drunkenly tearing apart the bench to repair a bed and have a barbecue. They were arrested at about 5am on Wednesday while walking down the road carrying the wooden planks, shortly after the police received a report about the vandalised bench in Dragonara Road, St Julian’s, ad­jacent to La Maltija restaurant. The two men were con­ditionally discharged for a year and ordered to pay €370...