A 20-year-old woman yesterday apologised in court for biting a police constable in the arm when officers turned up at her house following a report that her partner had beaten her on Sunday.

“I’m guilty and very sorry,” Joanne Agius said when asked to enter a plea to the charges brought against her that included assaulting and injuring the police woman officer, disobeying the police, breaching the peace and relapsing.

“It’s the officer you need to apologise to,” Magistrate Josette Demicoli told the accused, stressing that the charges she faced were serious because they involved assaulting a police woman who was carrying out her duties.

Police Inspector Jason Francis said the accused often called the Sliema police station claiming she was beaten by her foreign boyfriend. The police would go on site only for her to drop the charges.

On Sunday, he said, Ms Agius called again claiming to have been beaten.

When officers arrived and asked her to get into the police car to take her away from the Gżira house where she was allegedly beaten, she refused and bit the policewoman.

She later withdrew her claims against her partner, including that he forced her to sleep with his friends for money.

The magistrate asked the director of probation services to establish whether the woman was fit for community work and put off the case for judgment.

Ms Agius was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €3,500 and will be staying with her mother.

Lawyer Joseph Mizzi represented her.