In May, the court began hearing evidence against the woman accused of severely neglecting and abandoning her daughter who was found locked out on the balcony of her own house in Mosta on 17 May.

At the last sitting, the woman was granted bail.

The case was due to continue yesterday, but Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera explained that prosecuting inspector Joseph Mercieca went to the woman’s house at around 6.30am yesterday morning to present her with a summons but without success.

The police entered the residence and made a search, which yielded negative results. The court ordered the woman to be arrested as soon as she is found and the case will be appointed for the day after the arrest is carried out.

At the first sitting of the compilation of evidence, witnesses told the court that the six-year-old girl had been left out on the balcony, in her underwear, with no food and water and no access to a toilet. When she was found, she smelt foul and was surrounded with what looked like human excrement.

The witnesses, who included police inspector Chris Pullicino and his wife, who happen to live next door to the woman, confirmed that the six-year-old girl was left to her own devices many a time – on the doorstep, in the washroom and on the balcony, with only 39 cats for company.

The case was brought to a halt yesterday when the woman could not be found. She is to be arrested as soon as her whereabouts are discovered.