A police inspector testified today how a woman's boyfriend had smashed her mobile phone and bruised her as she tried to call for an ambulance after her son was scalded in the shower.

Sharon Fenech was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Andrea Camilleri, 29, of Luqa, who is pleading not guilty to grievously injuring Ms Fenech's three-year-old son Jesred earlier this month at around 8 a.m.

Police Inspector Jurgen Vella testified that Ms Fenech was three month's pregnant with Mr Camilleri's child. She had another two children from a previous relationship and had told the police that while Mr Camilleri had good relations with her elder son Claude, he did not get on well with Jesred, the younger one.

She said he used to tell her he was whiny, annoying and that she should send him back to his father.

But when the inspector confronted Mr Camilleri with these claims, he denied them.

Inspector Vella said that on the day of the incident, Mr Camilleri and Ms Fenech had a discussion after which Mr Camilleri got up to smoke a cigarette and Ms Fenech went back to sleep. But she was soon woken up by her son shouting papa jahraq, (papa it's hot).

She told the police she went to the bathroom and saw Mr Camilleri kneeling down over the bath with the shower head in his hand over the boy, who was crying.

She took the boy out of the bath and dressed him up to take him to the health centre. But she realised that he had blisters on the left side of his face and on the upper chest and took out her mobile to call an ambulance instead.

But Mr Camilleri took her mobile phone and smashed it on the floor and when she tried to leave to call for help, he pulled her back ad hit her, bruising her left arm.

She said she then locked herself in her room, taking the mobile phone parts with her. She put the phone together and texted her sister asking her to call the police and an ambulance. When the police came, she told them she saw Mr Camilleri leave the house.

Inspector Vella testified that two police reports had been filed earlier this year because of arguments between the two.

Dr Mariella Mangion, a doctor at Mater Dei who is called in when there are cases of suspected child abuse, said that the child had blisters on the left side of his head and his upper chest and redness on the lower part of his body. This made her believe that the water had cascaded down from his upper body.

She referred to a British Standards chart of burn degrees and said that it took one second for a body to scald when the water was above 65 degrees C. When it was 60 degrees C, it took five seconds.

Dr Mangion said that when she spoke to the mother she was adamant that the child had his back to the mixer. She also said that the child was released from hospital after a week but was still being taken to hospital every other day to have his bandages changed.

Dr Mangion said that while accidental burns were very common, she was concerned about this case because of Mr Camilleri's reluctance to call for help immediately.