Stricter bail conditions

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, yesterday modified bail conditions imposed by the Magistrates' Court after an appeal by the Attorney General.

A man who stands accused of causing grievous bodily harm to his wife by hitting her with an ornamental balcony last December was granted bail on Wednesday against a deposit of Lm500 and a personal guarantee of Lm5,000. He was also bound not to leave home at night.

Prosecutor Mark Said said he was seeking the man's re-arrest as the accused could not be trusted.

The court then ruled that because of repeated cases of violence, the man had to reside in his Cospicua flat as from today and could not leave home except between 7 and 11 a.m. He could speak to his lawyer at other times after seeking police permission. He was also barred from going to Marsascala (where his wife lives).

Before pronouncing his decree, Mr Justice Degaetano heard the man's wife and two of his children testify about the ordeal they went through at home.

The woman said she had been married to the accused for 22 years and could not take the beatings anymore. "I was tortured by him and he regularly beat up our children," she said.

She said she was beaten up even when she was pregnant. In spite of regular beatings, she filed only a few reports with the police but then insisted they do not charge her husband as she did not want her children to suffer because people would start whispering every time they saw the children.

"I reached a point when I no longer feared for my safety, but I was afraid of what would happen to my children if I died," she said.

On one occasion, she testified, she was cooking rabbit for her husband and the family and, following an argument, the accused rocked the table, smashing crockery, and started beating her under the table with a chair and then with a big piece of wood that was used to bar the staircase so that their young daughter would not fall downstairs.

"My arms were full of bruises. He beat me black and blue," she said, adding that since she started separation procedures some five months ago he had beaten her four times.

The daughter said she was living in Paola and had left home because her father beat her too at times. She had seen her father beating her mother on countless occasions and there were times she even hid knives in the kitchen as she was afraid they would be used in an argument at home.

The accused's son testified that his father sometimes beat up his mother twice a week. At times abuse started following verbal litigation. "I used to tell him not to beat her. He also beat me and my sister up. Once I was only 14. I had an accident the previous summer and underwent several operations and I wanted to enjoy that summer. He wanted me to go work with him and when I refused he hit me on my nose and floored me."

A 15-year-old in-law testified that after Wednesday's sitting, he was going out of court with his cousin, who had just testified against his father, and the accused told him: "Thank you...". When asked by the court to elaborate, the young witness said he did not take this as a compliment but as a threat, in the sense that he would pay him back.

Defence lawyer Albert Libreri argued that the couple had been separated for the past five months and there were no incidents, except for the one over which he stood charged.

Lawyer Noel Camilleri appeared in parte civile.