A 74-year-old man vociferously pleaded to go home when a magistrate ordered him to be examined to establish whether he was in a mental state to continue living alone.

The St Julian’s man was charged with threatening to blow up his neighbours using gas cylinders, forcing them to abandon their house and rent a place for them and their two-year-old child.

The accused repeatedly told Magistrate Ian Farrugia he wanted to stay at home and that he was only “bluffing” when he made his gas blast comment.

Times of Malta reported on the case on Monday.

You and I both know what is best for you

He pleaded with the magistrate to “forgive him” for what he had said and implored the court not to send him to a home for the elderly.

“You and I both know what is best for you: being admitted to a home where they can look after you and where they prepare your food. How can you go home and live alone,” the magistrate asked the man.

He replied: “I do not want to go to a home. I’m sorry. Just let me go home where I have lived for almost 41 years. I tried three homes for the elderly, including St Vincent de Paul, but I cannot live there and that is why I left. Just let me go home.”

The magistrate asked whether he was married and the accused replied: “God forbid. I would have killed her on the first night.”

He repeatedly asked why he was in court.

“You need help,” the magistrate kept telling him and every time he got the same reply: “I just want to go home.”

The accused said he arrived in court by taxi and had his right hand bandaged because he had fallen down the stairs at St Julian’s police station a few days ago.

He told the neighbours the court had been trying its best to find a solution to his problem for quite some time but the authorities informed the court they did not see any particular reason why the man had to be admitted to a home or a psychiatric hospital.

Magistrate Farrugia put the case off to January adding he expected the authorities to see to the matter “with utmost urgency”.

“The court believes there should be the immediate intervention of the Department for the Elderly and all authorities concerned, who should revise their previous stand on this 74-year-old who requires attention and help.

“They should not only look at what he wants to do but should also see what is in his best interest and also of those who live around him,” the magistrate said.