A man was given a 13-month jail term, suspended for two years, yesterday for beating and threatening to kill a friend. The victim has since forgiven the accused.

The court, presided over by magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, heard how 29-year-old Kevin Spiteri of Qrendi phoned Cathleen Camilleri of Zurrieq at around 11.30pm on New Year’s Eve and asked her to meet him in a bar. It was not unusual for the two to go out for a drink. They decided to meet some friends afterwards, but Ms Camilleri told the accused that she wanted to go home to get some money.

Ms Camilleri said Spiteri drove her car and when they arrived near Industrial Motors, he began talking about a woman called Daphne.

Spiteri continued to talk about Daphne and Ms Camilleri told him that he was talking about her “as if you had sexual relations with this Daphne”. At this point, she said, the accused hit her on the head, started to insult her and ordered her not to talk about Daphne.

The victim told the court that when they arrived in Marsa, Spiteri told her he was going to take her to a quarry and kill her. She said this had not been the first time that he had threatened her life.

When they arrived in Mqabba, she started screaming and tried to get out of the car but he held on to her and drove even faster. Ms Camilleri said she tried to call 191 on her mobile but Mr Spiteri prevented her from calling. However, she had not hung up and while they were down in the quarry, someone saying “hello, hello” answered her call.

She confirmed that the accused hit her again on her back, held her down, grabbed her by the neck and forced her against the rocks. After she managed to get away, she received a call from the police who asked her what was going on.

Ms Camillieri said she told the police that she was in Mqabba but did not know exactly where. Officers from the police mobile squad were dispatched and found Camilleri in the quarry. By that time, Spiteri had left.

Testifying, Spiteri said that Ms Camilleri was not his girlfriend but she was very possessive and sent him a lot of text messages. He said Daphne was a woman who used to send him SMSs from England. Spiteri said that Ms Camilleri used to lend her car to a lot of people and that he did not take her to the quarry but somewhere close by. He told the court that Ms Camilleri had sent him text messages even when he was arraigned in court.

In its judgment, the court said it believed that the victim had been taken to the quarry and that the accused had threatened to kill her.

Inspector Joseph Agius prosecuted.