A police officer told a magistrate today that he used minimal force with a Spanish woman who insisted on skipping the queue at the Identity Malta offices in Valletta last month, but insisted that he did not push her. 

His version was corroborated by other employees who witnessed the incident, who all confirmed that the woman was screaming and moving backwards and tripped over a low parking barrier. She fractured her arm in the fall. 

Police Constable Anthony Theuma was testifying before Magistrate Joseph Mifsud in the compilation of evidence against Yinette Consuelo Guaquirian Pedrique, 49, from Swieqi.

She stands charged with filing the false report at the police depot in Floriana on June 22.

She is also charged with accusing someone of a crime she knew had not taken place, causing a disturbance outside the passport office on June 15, disobeying police orders and preventing the police officer from carrying out his duties.

Criminal action was taken against the woman after closed circuit television footage revealed that she had not been pushed.

The court heard how the woman was allowed to sit inside the building on the day of the incident because she told them she had a medical condition affecting her eye and could not stand in the sun. 

Mr Theuma said that while she was inside, she walked to the reception desk and demanded a queue number. The employees at the reception did not know that she had been allowed in as a special concession and gave her a number. 

But other people in the queue began to complain and employees asked her to return the number but she refused. She began shouting at employees in broken English and in a language they could not understand. They, however, clearly understood when she repeatedly told them "f*** you". 

Mr Theuma was asking to intervene and she continued being rowdy, hitting him in the process. He told the court he repeatedly told her to calm down and finally managed to snatch the ticket out of her hands. 

Some 20 minutes later the woman went outside the passport office and kicked and punched a security officer, Raymond Mifsud, who immediately called the policeman once again. 

Mr Theuma said the woman continued to resist him, was shouting at the top of her voice and was also hitting him. He said he saw her moving backwards and told her to watch the low barrier behind her but she tripped backwards. He said that as he tried helping her back up, she began kicking him so he drew his pepper spray and warned her that he would have to use it if she continued being violent. 

"I used the bare minimum of force and even though I had handcuffs and pepper spray, I did not use them on her. She was violent and disobeyed all my orders but I did not lay a finger on her," Mr Theuma said. 

Mr Mifsud and clerks Pricilla Vassallo and Aloisia Puseni Saleh, also recounted how the woman was rowdy and expected to skip the queue. They said that they allowed her inside because of her claim that she had a medical condition.

When she approached the front desk, the clerks said, she literally shoved people to the side. They all said that at no point did the police officer touch the woman. 

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Mifsud asked the prosecution to summon an executive from Identity Malta to hear about the procedures used at the office. 

The case continues next week. 

Police inspectors Justin Camilleri and Pricilla Caruana prosecuted while lawyers Andrew Sciberras and Lara Dimitrijevic appeared for the woman.