A 16-year-old girl told a court this afternoon that her mother’s partner had held a knife to her throat during an argument between her and the couple.

The couple, however, denied the girl's claim and said that she had actually threatened to stab the man, saying that she would get away with it as she was a minor.

The man, 44, is being charged with threatening her and unlawfully carrying a knife in his car.

Police Inspector Jeanne Farrugia told the court  that on September 19 she was informed that a 16-year-old girl had been assaulted by her mother’s partner. The girl was not injured, and refused to be medically examined.

A search in the man’s car had yielded a knife, which he said he kept there as he reared animals. The mother then handed over another knife and a landline telephone with a slashed cable.

Taking the witness stand, the girl, who is living in a shelter for victims of domestic violence, said her mother's partner used to constantly call her mother enquiring about her, and on that day, she answered the phone and told him to go to her mother’s place. Once there, there was an argument. He grabbed her by the neck and held a knife close to her throat.

The 16-year-old said the man would throw a tantrum if someone did as much as touch the wall, and her mother did not speak up even though he had also beaten her.

The girl's mother told the court that she did not approve of her daughter's relationship with a 32-year-old man, whom she said, had sold her into prostitution. 

During an argument with the accused, the girl had told her that if she were to stab him, she would get away with it because she was a minor.

However, neither of them touched the knife, and her partner just placed it on the bed, she said.

To this, the magistrate pointed out that the daughter had just testified that the accused grabbed her by the neck and put a knife against her throat.

“Do you think I’d let him do this to her?” the mother replied, recounting how the argument had started when the girl snatched her (mother’s) mobile and went into the bedroom.

The accused went in to take the phone back and the girl spoke to him rudely. Her partner brought a knife from the kitchen, placed it on the bed and told her to stab him.

The mother told the court that her daughter had tired her out mentally. Before turning 16, the girl broke up with a boyfriend whom she would take drugs with. She did not allow him in the house after catching them in bed, she said.

A few days later the girl showed her a picture of her new boyfriend, whom she recognised as a known drug addict and pimp.

She added that the police had been given copies of Facebook chats where the girl had been offering her body for €20. She was informed that the 32-year old would sell her on the streets of Marsa in summer.

“I don’t know how the police did not send for him when they knew he was prostituting her,” she said. The mother noted that she had even written to the Police Commissioner, questioning why proceedings had not been instituted against the pimp.

The accused, who also gave evidence, who said he could not understand why the police were refusing to prosecute the 32-year-old.

He said he  realised that the girl was being sold into sex after finding messages from men on a mobile phone which she had borrowed.

He said he called the police station every day, telling them where the man was, while her mother went to the police station in person, but the police never took action.

The accused said that during the argument on September 19, the girl had said she would kill him so he had taken the knife from the kitchen, placed it on the bed and told her to go ahead.

The court will continue to hear the case next week. (Names are not being published in order not to identify the girl, who was a minor)