A man who had threatened his wife - from whom he was separated, with a knife and chased his family crashing into them when they escaped in a car has been given a suspended jail term.

In handing Felix Delia, 45, of Żabbar the suspended sentence, Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani took into consideration the fact that his wife Maria Muscat had forgiven him.

The incident took place in April, 2005 after then couple argued when Mr Delia was drunk.

He threatened his wife with a knife and she grabbed their three children, including a six-month-old baby, and ran to her car.

He gave chase in a mini minor and crashed into the passenger door where the baby was sitting.

Ms Muscat reported the incident to the police and soon received a call from her husband telling her he was at her house smashing everything up.

On returning to the house, Ms Muscat found that he had broken a window to get inside. He threatened that he would kill or disable her. She again called the police again and he tried to smash into her car a second time. However, he was stopped by the police officers on the scene.

In a police statement, Mr Delia admitted to threatening Ms Muscat but refused to answer questions about the incident.

Taking the witness stand, Ms Muscat said that she forgave her estranged husband who was a different person when he was drunk.

She said he held nothing against him because he helped her substantially.

He was also attending group therapy sessions since there were no places in the residential rehabilitation programme.

Magistrate Padovani said that although the prosecutor had presented a number of previous judgments about Mr Delia, there were no witnesses to prove that they actually pertained to him so she could not find him guilty of relapsing.

The magistrate suspended Mr Delia’s driving licence for a year and fined him €582.34.

She said that a two year jail term suspended for four years was being handed down after considering the circumstances of the case, particularly Ms Muscat’s forgiveness.