A woman has been jailed for persistently threatening and insulting the father of her children.

The woman appeared in court on Monday, accused of threatening to file a false police report against the man before magistrate Joe Mifsud.

The court was told that after making the threat, she had allegedly filed a police report claiming rape by the man. That case is being heard behind closed doors, but it is one of over 100 complaints she had made against the man over the years, who has consistently been found innocent, his lawyer says.

The man has two daughters whom he cannot see because of the woman’s continued false reports and false information that she gives to the court, said his lawyer Jason Grima. 

In the case before magistrate Mifsud, Grima requested a guarantee that his client is allowed to live in peace by the woman and that the harassment cease.  

The woman appeared on edge in the courtroom and continuously passed comments, resulting in her being asked to stop by the court. 

The court said that it believed the testimony of the parte civile who had testified – as he had told the police immediately after the incident in question- that she had told him “like I sent you to prison with false reports, I’ll send you to prison again,” before launching into a foulmouthed diatribe.

The time had come for these incidents to stop once and for all, said magistrate Mifsud, as they were a drain on the police and court’s resources.

Finding her guilty of the threat charges, Magistrate Mifsud had then condemned her to one month in prison and ordered her not to approach the man against a guarantee of €2,000.  

But when judgment was delivered she had started to protest that she hadn’t done anything wrong and that her sentence was “an injustice.”

The magistrate instructed the woman to sign a form asking for the suspension of her sentence pending appeal, but she had refused and continued to argue. 

She was sentenced to 15 days detention for contempt of court, with the court ordering the police to escort her to the lock up as the sentence was then final. 

The woman had later apologised to the court, saying that she hadn’t understood what was going on. The court revoked its punishment for contempt of court, but not the original prison sentence.

Lawyer Leslie Cuschieri appeared for the woman. Lawyer Jason Grima appeared parte civile for the victim.