A Żabbar housewife yesterday denied blackmailing a greengrocer by threatening to expose pictures of him half naked in her house.

The 41-year-old woman, who cannot be named by court order, is being accused of blackmail together with her 21-year-old daughter and her sister, 42.

She said that the vegetable hawker was sexually obsessed with her and would follow her everywhere and leave items, such as vegetables, for her at home in the hope of having a relationship with her.

Although she did initially tell the police that, together with her sister and daughter, they managed to get him into her house and then took pictures of him as he undressed to blackmail him, that was all a lie, she said in court.

The woman said that what she had told the police in her statement was a concoction she came up with together with her daughter while they were waiting to be questioned.

When asked by her lawyer, Mich-ael Sciriha, whether her daughter had an argument with the greengrocer, she admitted she did but only because her daughter told him to leave her mother alone.

The woman said that the greengrocer had made her life hell and they had suffered ever since the case began in 2009 because all the neighbours knew about it, she said breaking into tears.

She confirmed that, at the time, she owed her sister about €3,700 and it was the greengrocer who had paid the debt for her. She also owed him money.

When asked why she had lied in her police statement, she said she was desperate because the police had told her that her children would be taken away by social services.

Her nephew testified that when the picture was meant to have been taken in October, he was at home with his mother, the co-accused, when they heard a woman shouting.

Both of them went to see what had happened and, when they went downstairs, they found his aunt and the greengrocer who was half naked and aroused.

He said he handed the greengrocer his clothes and tried to get him out of the house.

Final submissions are expected to be made in April.