A man accused of trying to murder his estranged wife had been granted bail despite being charged with making death threats a couple of weeks before the near-fatal attack.

The mother of 41-year-old victim Charmaine Cassar had filed a police report on April 23 against her son-in-law, after her 16-year-old granddaughter revealed he had told her he wanted to kill her mother, a court heard yesterday. He even allegedly took the teenager along with him to buy the murder weapon.

Police sources said 43-year-old Eleno Cassar, of Birkirkara, had been arraigned in the wake of that report but the presiding magistrate granted him bail.

Then, on May 5, he allegedly acted on his threats and stabbed Mrs Cassar three times, leaving her for dead at her mother’s house.

Victim Support Malta director Roberta Lepre and Renee Laiviera from the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations said the case highlighted the need for better assessment by the courts before granting bail.

“We’re taking too many risks with people’s lives,” Ms Laiviera said, stressing that the courts should carry out psychological assessments before situations escalated to determine how dangerous a perpetrator was.

Dr Lepre said she felt that often, the courts were not given enough information at bail hearings, insisting that it was the duty of the prosecution and the victims’ lawyers to provide such information, possibly by presenting a risk assessment report.

The case echoes the recent murder of 40-year-old Christina Sammut, who was shot dead, allegedly by her jealous former boyfriend Kenneth Gafà, four weeks after she filed a report at the Rabat police station claiming he had chased her with a knife.

Yesterday, the harrowing experience endured by the family was exposed in terrifying detail as the victim’s mother, Tessie Busuttil, 66, from Birkirkara, took the witness stand against Mr Cassar in the first sitting of the compilation of evidence. The accused is pleading not guilty.

During her testimony Ms Busuttil unknowingly exposed loopholes in the victim-protection system when she said that a police report had been filed about his threats less than two weeks before the attack.

She gave a blow by blow account of the moment her former son-in-law burst through the front door of her house and attacked her daughter, Charmaine, with a knife.

Days before the incident, she said, the accused had called their 16-year-old daughter and told her to look at the news on television about murder victim Christina Sammut. He told her to enjoy her mother while she could because, like Ms Sammut, she would not be alive much longer.

He also called Ms Busuttil and told her that it did not matter that the court had placed him under a guarantee to protect his wife because that guarantee was only a piece of paper that he could wipe his backside with.

On the day in question, Mrs Busuttil said she heard her internal glazed door break open before the attack.

At first she thought it could be robbers but then she heard the words, “Where is she, where is she?” She darted for the main door and he immediately slammed her against a chest of drawers and barged his way through to where her daughter was, leaving furniture in his wake to block her path.

She then heard her daughter shout out “Ma!” and seconds later she saw him throw a chair at Mrs Cassar, which knocked her to the floor when it hit her on the forehead.

He then began kicking her “just as footballers do in training” and that’s when Ms Busuttil jumped on top of her daughter to protect her from the onslaught.

The accused drew a pen knife and began plunging it into his wife when, with all the strength she had left in her, Ms Busuttil punched him in the stomach and grabbed the knife by the blade, severely cutting her hand and arm.

She managed to wrestle the weapon away from him. He grabbed Mrs Cassar, slammed her on the kitchen table and said “stay there and die” before he fled, saying that he would be going to the police.

During questioning by her own lawyer Joseph Giglio, Ms Busuttil told the court that the accused and her daughter had been separated for 14 years but they kept in contact.

Over the last six to eight months, the threats by the accused increased and for that reason she had been living at a shelter for battered women. However she had to move to another one in Gozo because he began threatening social workers at the home too.

She later moved back to her mother’s house after having had surgery for a pinched nerve because her mother did not want her at the hospital while he was on the loose.

Some time before the incident, Ms Busuttil said, her 16-year-old granddaughter had told her that her father had phoned wanting to take her out. She warned her to be careful because he was known to drive like a maniac. Sometime later she returned and ran up the stairs crying, went to bed and texted her mother.

She later found out that Mr Cassar had taken her to a dark garage in Pembroke where he tried to buy a revolver. The seller demanded €1,000 for it but the accused didn’t have the money and so settled for the knife, she said.

The girl had enough sense to record the address of the garage, she added.

The case continues.

Police Inspectors Daniel Zammit and Elton Taliana prosecuted. Lawyer Edward Gatt appeared for Mr Cassar while lawyer Joe Giglio appeared parte civile.