Woman provoked into injuring husband

A Cospicua woman was yesterday conditionally discharged for six months for seriously injuring her estranged husband after a magistrate ruled she had been provoked.

Rita Spiteri was found guilty of assaulting and injuring her husband Mario and breaching the peace in Cospicua on February 6, 2001, at about 5 p.m.

Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona heard Spiteri explain how her husband picked her up from home and when she got into his car an argument broke out.

She said that he threatened to cut off her head and undid his seat belt so she brandished a pen knife at him in self-defence.

But her husband denied threatening her and said she had attacked him for no reason.

After evaluating the wounds suffered by Spiteri's husband Magistrate Micallef Trigona dismissed Spiteri's claim of self-defence but ruled that it was sufficiently proven that she had been provoked and constantly threatened.