A man serving a life sentence for stabbing his partner 11 years ago was yesterday sentenced to another seven years in jail after he attacked a fellow inmate with a blade, blinding him in one eye.

David Norbert Schembri, 39, was found guilty of slashing Noel Borg’s eyeball with a makeshift knife on June 1, 2010, at the Corradino Correctional Facility.

A week before the incident, Mr Schembri had insulted the other inmate’s father. Mr Schembri claimed he had been tipped off that Mr Borg planned to pay him back for what he had said, so made a makeshift weapon to be able to defend himself.

Mr Borg testified that, on the day of the incident, he was standing behind Mr Schembri waiting in the queue to get methadone. As he walked into the treatment room, Mr Schembri slashed Mr Borg’s eyeball, damaging his cornea. He lost that eye.

It was normal for people to carry a blade in prison

Court-appointed psychiatrists said that Mr Schembri was taken over by a state of fear at the time of the crime, since Mr Borg had warned that he would retaliate. However, they said this did not affect Mr Schembri’s ability to realise what he was doing.

Mr Schembri said in court that Mr Borg had stabbed him a week before the incident but he had not reported it because there was no one around at the time.

He said it was normal for people to carry a blade in prison and claimed he had slashed Mr Borg in pre-emptive self-defence.

He insisted he had been provoked, but Magistrate Audrey Demicoli ruled that for such line of defence to stand the provocation had to come immediately prior to the incident.

In this case, the alleged provocation happened a week earlier. The magistrate found him guilty of grievous bodily harm resulting in a permanent disability, carrying a sharp or pointed instrument without the necessary licence, breaching the peace and relapsing.

Mr Schembri was sentenced to seven years behind bars and ordered not to speak to Mr Borg against a €500 fine in default.

In January 2009, Mr Schembri was convicted of stabbing Josette Scicluna, 32, the mother of his child, about 49 times in May 2004 in her San Ġwann flat.

His daughter, then aged seven, had witnessed the first part of the attack before she was taken away by a neighbour.

He had shot open the door of Ms Scicluna’s flat and chased her to the kitchen, where he cornered her between the refrigerator and the wall, stabbing her repeatedly.

His criminal record has no fewer than 12 convictions for driving offences, possession of cannabis, heroin and cocaine and drug trafficking.

Police Inspector Jurgen Vella prosecuted. Lawyer Joe Brincat appeared for Mr Schembri.