A 51 year-old was accused of having on 25 September 2017, grievously injured her 71 year-old husband without intent to kill or put his life in manifest jeopardy.
The man had told magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech how at the time he was frequently arguing with his wife, who was blaming him for the fact that her son was not successful at school. On the night of the 25th September 2017, the couple had argued on their balcony with the woman accusing her husband of being a paedophile and a drug addict. The argument went on for about an hour. As he left the balcony to go into the kitchen, she had blocked the way by standing in the door way. When he had attempted to get past her a couple of times, she had punched him on the left side of his head and pulled at his hair. The man had tried to restrain her but this developed into a tussle with the accused scratching him on his legs, chest and hands which bruises and abrasions remained visible to the Court despite the fact that he had testified over a month later.
The accused had kicked him below the knee whilst also biting him on his arm, "shaking her head whilst his arm was firmly in her mouth."
"I was trying to get her head off my arm and a few seconds later she got my testicles, my private parts, she managed to get her hands inside my shorts and she started pulling like crazy. Eventually I was begging her to stop, she's got long fingernails and I'm telling you it was agony. I told her a few times, "please stop this is too painful."... She stopped and she stood up and looked at me, I was still at the floor and walked away... I was on the floor and she went I don't know where..... Then I gradually with difficulty stood up in the kitchen and I told her that I needed an ambulance."
But instead of offering assistance to her husband, who had now retreated to the bedroom to get his mobile and call for help, he said that she had simply stood and stared at him. He could not find his keys or wallet and by that time he needed to rest so he remained on the bed. It was later that he noticed that the sheets were stained with blood.
A doctor from the Gzira policlinic had then referred the man to Mater Dei where after undergoing an operation he was informed that the left testicle had to be removed. "The left testicle hanging out of the scrotum and it was covered with pus," one consultant told the court. Luckily for the man, the testicle was saved.
The elderly man explained how being unable to call for an ambulance or find his keys he had retreated to the bedroom to rest after the aggression he endured at the hands of his wife. The injured party is a frail 71-year-old whilst his wife a 51-year-old of sturdy build, observed the court.
The court dismissed as "incredulous at best," the accused's version of events in which she omitted to mention the altercation and simply said that the next day he had told her he was not feeling well.
"The accused's testimony jars dramatically with reality: She admits that when her husband informed her he was going to the policlinic she didn't ask him why. She fails to mention how one could possibly suffer all those injuries - which she fails to mention as even seeing, including the multiple scratches on the face, arms and hands," said the court.
The Court said it found the testimony of the accused both unsafe and unsatisfactory. Her demeanour on the witness stand failed to convince the Court of her genuineness and credibility, her continuous denial that any incident took place notwithstanding the injuries which were sustained by her husband who, by her own admission, never left the house, "render her account of events nothing but a product of fiction, yet a fiction riddled with non sequiturs."
The court, saying it had a zero tolerance approach to domestic violence. "There is to be no place for such demented actions, for frenzied attacks on persons who due to age or other circumstances can't even be assured protection within the confines of their own homes, attacks on individuals who suffer aggression from those to whom they entrust their care and companionship."
The court said the only reason the accused was not handed an effective term of imprisonment was the fact that she was a first time offender. The woman was handed a 2 year prison sentence, suspended for 4 years. She was also ordered to submit to psychological treatment for her violent outbursts and placed under a 3 year restraining order.