Policeman hit-and-run Facebook hate messages land three in trouble

Three people were marched to court on Friday after they posted "hate" messages hours after a policeman was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident.  Kylie Cutajar, 21, from St Venera, Ritmark Borg, 28, from Paola, and Josef D’Amato, 24 from Marsa pleaded not guilty in court after their Facebook messages were flagged to the police. Inspector Joseph Busuttil and John Spiteri charged the three with publicly inciting persons to commit a crime and misuse of electronic communications equipment. Mr D'Amato had posted on Facebook that “at least one policeman should be run over every day”. His legal aid lawyer did not request bail. Ms Cutajar had written “Waħda reverse u ejja ħa mmorru” (reverse and drive on). The prosecution said they feared that the evidence would be tampered with as it would be easy to change the comment from any device. His defence lawyer argued, however, that this his comment was generic mockery and not badmouthing the police in general or the officer in question. He was also refused bail. The officer - 48-year-old father-of-three Simon Schembri - had tried to stop a motorist driving a Mercedes, who then ran him over and dragged him for several...