A man facing charges of trying to kill a nurse has been sentenced for three years in jail for seriously injuring his former girlfriend with a knife.

Noel Calleja, 32, from Santa Venera, was accused of trying to kill MMDNA nurse Jacqueline Dipas­quale, 44, from Swieqi, by stabbing her in September last year.

He had also been charged in separate proceedings a year earlier with trying to kill and seriously injuring his girlfriend, Josianne Bonnici, in July, 2011. He had beaten Ms Bonnici up and slashed her with a knife.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli issued a protection order covering Ms Bonnici for three years. In the pending proceedings for the alleged attack on Ms Dipasquale, Mr Calleja is also pleading not guilty to carrying an unlicensed knife, holding her and Nicola Cutajar against their will, stealing a car and damaging another vehicle.

He allegedly stabbed Ms Dipasquale at least 12 times in her abdomen and back. She also sustained facial injuries.

The day after the stabbing, during investigations, he was taken to an apartment block by the police who were told he would lead them to the spot where he hid the knife. During a search inside the Qormi flat he escaped from his police escort, rushed to the roof of the three-storey block in Triq tal-Ħlas and went onto the horizontal flagpole threatening to commit suicide. He remained there for five hours before duty Magistrate Ian Farrugia persuaded him to give up.

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