Man to be indicted over stabbing of son-in-law

A woman yesterday took the witness stand in the case against her father, who is charged with stabbing her estranged husband, and explained how she saw her husband approach her father with a pen-knife.

Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona heard Susan Caruana testify in the compilation of evidence against her 59-year-old father, Innocenzio Farrugia of Ghaxaq, who is pleading not guilty to trying to kill his son-in-law, Mrs Caruana's husband, Joseph Caruana when he stabbed him during a fight on May 4.

Mrs Caruana explained that the day before the incident she had left her matrimonial home, due to marital problems. She took her daughter and a computer with her and went to live at her father's house.

On the day of the incident she was with her father in his van when they ran into her husband in Gudja.

Her husband blocked the way with his van, got out of the vehicle, approached her father and pulled him out of his vehicle.

She said she did not see anything in her father's hands but recalled seeing a pen-knife with a brown handle in her husband's hand. She said she had never seen the knife before and did not recall seeing the blade that day.

Mrs Caruana added that when the two started fighting she went to call for help and as a result did not see what took place between the two men. She later saw the knife being held by her father who handed it over to the police.

Mr Caruana, taking the witness stand, said he recognised the accused as his father-in-law. He went on to tell the court that the two men had no hard feelings about what had happened and he had renounced any criminal action, where possible.

When the magistrate asked Mr Caruana to recount how he ended up in hospital, he said he did not notice anything wrong with him on the day of the incident. Mr Caruana was cautioned but decided to go on giving evidence. He said he did not see a knife that day but at some point felt blood trickle from his left ear.

He explained that his wife had left their matrimonial house and the following day, while he was driving his van, he accidentally met Mr Farrugia who was also driving his van.

Mr Caruana said he blocked Mr Farrugia's passage and the two men got out of their respective vans and ended up fighting. He said he was not carrying anything at the time and all he knew was that he ended up with blood on his face and was taken to hospital to be medicated.

At the end of the sitting the magistrate ruled that there were sufficient reasons for Mr Farrugia's indictment.