A former policeman beat up his lover after she tried to end their extra-marital affair, punching her so hard in the stomach that she vomited.
Anthony Lia, 63, from Fgura, was yesterday given a suspended jail term and fined €700 for assaulting his partner, Nigerian national Marianne Monday, slightly injuring her and threatening her with a gun.
Mr Lia had sent Ms Monday an SMS saying that he wanted to speak to her and to “end this misery”.
They met at a flat in Paola the next day, on December 7, 2010, and he had a gun in his back pocket.
He threatened to kill her and her friend, named as Chris, also threatening to turn the gun on himself.
They got into an argument and he dragged her down the stairs by her hair. He then hit her so hard in the stomach that she vomited.
As he pulled her out into the road she screamed for help and a passerby phoned the police, the court heard.
Mr Lia claimed that she had demanded a baby from him and, when he refused, she threatened to expose their relationship to his wife and his work colleagues.
He also claimed that there was no fight at all, when all the evidence pointed in the opposite direction, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli noted.
In her considerations, the magistrate pointed out that Mr Lia’s defence counsel tried to get Ms Monday’s testimony removed from the proceedings because they were prevented from carrying on with her cross-examination.
Magistrate Demicoli noted that the defence had actually begun its cross examination but chose not to finish it and asked for her to be called again.
In the meantime, she left Malta and was abroad and unfortunately untraceable, the magistrate said.
At this point, the defence asked for her testimony to be removed as they could not cross-examine her properly.
However, the magistrate dismissed their request, ruling they did have the time to cross-examine her and her testimony was heard according to law.