Son forgives father-in-law for alleged knife attack

A man who was allegedly struck with a flick-knife by his father-in-law told a court this morning that he had forgiven him.

Innocent Farrugia, 64 of Gudja, is pleading not guilty to having struck Joseph Caruana, 46, in an incident in Gudja in May five years ago.

The police have alleged that the two came to blows after the daughter of the accused saw her husband with another woman in Marsa on the day before the incident, and immediately moved to her parents' house.

Police Inspector Joseph Agius said that in his statement to the police, the accused had said that Mr Caruana blocked his van in Gudia. The two came to blows . The accused had insisted that it was Mr Caruana who attacked him with a knife. He managed to wrestle the knife away from his hand and hit him in self-defence.

Mr Caruana initially refused to testify but was ordered to do so by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono. He said that his wife had thought he had met a prostitute, when actually he was in Marsa only because of his work as a plasterer. He claimed that it was the accused who blocked the road in Gudja, and what he could remember was only that he had been struck with a knife.

Court experts told the court that Mr Caruana was struck in the neck, with the blade going as far in as the top of the mouth. Mr Caruana had been in danger of dying.

The case continues.