A judge this afternoon upheld the Attorney General's appeal and revoked a magistrate's decision not to issue a protection order for a man who was stabbed by his lover's husband. 

The appeal was filed by the police through the Attorney General's office after Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona last Saturday ruled that a protection order was not necessary.

But Mr Justice David Scicluna upheld an appeal and issued a protection order for the victim and also for the man's wife. The defence did not object. 

He was ruling over a case of a 38-year-old man from Paola, whose name cannot be published by court order, who pleaded guilty to seriously injuring a man who he found in bed with his wife when he returned home early from work. 

The court heard how the lover attacked the husband with a mug he found on the bedside table. So the husband ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and returned to the bedroom where he stabbed the lover in the face and hand.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto told Mr Justice Scicluna that his client was considering filing a criminal complaint over the mug attack. He explained that his client admitted to the charges brought against him but, he insisted, that his crime was "excusable at law". 

Dr Montalto said his client was threatened and provoked and was reacting with sudden passion when he found himself in that situation. The incident happened at the Paola matrimonial home last Friday at 10.30am.

Despite the admission, the man's case will be heard as if he pleaded not guilty because the court has to hear evidence to sustain the man's claim that he had been provoked. 

Police inspector Spiridione Zammit prosecuted. Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Vincienne Vella appeared for the Attorney General's office.