A terrified Ukrainian woman yesterday spoke of her suffering and stress after a 40-year-old British neighbour became obsessed with her and decided that she belonged to him.
The man, Ian Swift, from Birkirkara, “who clearly needed psychological help”, yesterday admitted to harassing her and breaching bail conditions just a week after he was charged with assaulting her.
Speaking in a hurried manner, the woman, who is not being named to protect her identity, said that she never actually had a relationship with him but got to know him because they were neighbours.
She said that he turned up at her flat on Friday and began thumping on the door and shouting before she called the police. This was not the only incident and she said he had repeatedly harassed her and even used a flick knife to threaten to seriously hurt her.
She was emotional throughout her testimony and had to be told to calm down.
At one point once she was done testifying, Mr Swift tried to speak to her as she sat in the public gallery, earning the consternation of Magistrate Miriam Hayman, who in a raised voice said that he was proving her point.
Mr Swift said his private life was like an orchard or a corn field and that he felt upset if anyone trampled on it. Asked by the magistrate how he would describe the victim, he said that she was a dirty whore.
She remarked that he seemed like a very argumentative type of person
He said that she had phoned him to speak to him but wanted to remain behind her front door while they did so. He claimed that she was so in love with him that she even went to his doctor to speak about having his children.
Magistrate Hayman asked him why he had gone to the house when it was in clear breach of his bail conditions and he said that he did not know why.
She remarked that he seemed like a very argumentative type of person from the way he was answering the questions.
She told him that he needed psychological help, and that he did not see it but he was obsessed with the victim, adding that there was a very big problem.
After considering the evidence, she jailed him for one month and put the victim under a protection order.