Two teenage lesbians who were allegedly attacked by two brothers and a 35-year-old woman will also be charged in court alongside the trio on Friday.

They were sitting on a bench when they were attacked

The brothers, 15 and 17, and the woman are expected to face charges of breaching the peace, threatening the girls aged 16 and 15, while the brothers alone will be accused of slightly injuring them.

The girls, on the other hand, are expected to face charges of slightly injuring the 17-year-old boy, breaching the peace and assaulting the brothers and the woman.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, one the girls recounted how she was sitting on a bench with her girlfriend in a Ħamrun square when the two young men attacked them.

The incident took place on January 13 and started with the boys hurling insults at the girls from a nearby balcony. They called them “lesbians” and “twisted” and went down into the square, the girls said.

The 16-year-old girl ended up at a health centre with a fractured nose, a grazed face and bruises to her breasts.

Her girlfriend got away with a bruise to the head and scratches on her wrists which she sustained when pushed to the ground.

The attack, which was ­followed by another recent incident seemingly fuelled by homophobia, sparked widespread condemnation, eventually culminating in a protest and political pledges to strengthen laws protecting gay people from hate crimes.

The second incident came to light on February 6 when an Arriva bus driver was sacked for assaulting two women in what the transport company said seemed to be a homophobic act.