Woman recalls blows by black belt husband

The estranged wife of a former bank employee, charged with fraud, yesterday told the court how during their marriage he kept tight control over all her bank documents and transactions which she could only use and access with his permission.

The woman took the witness stand, before Magistrate Antonio Mizzi, in the compilation of evidence against her husband who is pleading not gile restoring their pieces. Photos: Chris Sant Fournier

The name of the man and the bank where he worked are not being published by court order.

On taking the stand, the woman was shown cheques bearing her signature. She recognised the handwriting to be that of her husband and, without alluding to the possibility that he had forged the signature, she said that the signature on those cheques was not hers.

She added that during their marriage, he kept control over all her bank documents including her cheque book and credit cards.

If she needed her cheque book she would have to ask him for it and throughout their married life she had only withdrawn money from an ATM on about two occasions and, when she did, he would call her soon after asking her to give him the reason for the withdrawal.

"People ask me how I spent six years in such a marriage. I used to protest to him about the situation but I learnt that, when I did, it ended up in violence," she said.

Asked about the violence, she explained that it happened about three or four times a year. Her husband was a black belt and when he hit her the blow was hard, so much so that there were occasions when she had to see a doctor. The woman explained that initially she did not suspect fraud but as the story unfolded she went to the auditors at the bank to try to solve things there as she did not want to end up in a court case against her husband.

Contrary to what the defence was trying to imply, she said, she was not seeking revenge.

During the lengthy testimony, lawyer Pawlu Lia, for the accused, asked the woman several questions, many of which led to bickering between the lawyer and the witness.

Dr Lia asked her if she was ever interested in the study of signatures to which she replied that she liked reading about various topics.

He then showed her a note which she recognised to be written in her handwriting.

The note was an analysis of the signature of her husband and, she explained, she had copied it from a calligraphy book, on her husband's request during their marriage. In fact, she added the note was in his possession and not hers.

Dr Lia also asked her if she was an "imaginative" person who liked pretending to be another character and if she ever signed notes with other names, which he listed.

While defining herself as "artistic", she explained that she had signed notes with these names but this was before they were married and the names were pet names. Besides, the names were not signed but merely written down.

He asked her if she had ever been to a fortune-teller and she said that she had with friends and had also accompanied her husband.

As the witness continued answering questions, put to her my Dr Lia, she voiced her frustration at his line of questioning which she said was aimed at "framing" her.

"He's trying to depict me as a crazy person," she said.

The magistrate noted that the lawyer was doing his duty which was to defend his client.

Police Inspector Angelo Gafà is prosecuting.

Lawyer Ruth Scott is appearing in parte civile.