A couple were cleared of assaulting an elderly woman during a fight near Kennedy Grove last year after a magistrate found they were the victims.
Dylan Xuereb, 23, and Kelly Zammit, 27, had been charged with threatening Helen Ciantar while Mr Xuereb, alone, was also charged with seriously injuring her on February 10, 2014, at about 1.10pm.
Magistrate Aaron Bugeja heard how the incident happened when Mr Xuereb and Ms Zammit were looking for a parking spot near Kennedy Grove, limits of Naxxar.
They drove into a narrow road that led into an opening. As they drove through the narrow road they encountered another car, coming from the opposite direction.
Mr Xuereb asked the driver of the other car to reverse as he was close to the opening and this led to an argument between the people in the two cars. The magistrate noted that the two versions conflicted from this point forward.
Ms Ciantar said the couple got out the car and started insulting her and using obscene words and swearing against Our Lady. Mr Xuereb then pushed her with his chest and she fell to the ground and landed on her hand.
Her son-in-law told him to stop and Ms Zammit jumped on his back and started hitting him. Ms Ciantar said that, later, a doctor told her she needed to keep her hand in plaster but she only did so for a week as she had to care for her 92-year-old mother.
The couple, however, said that Ms Ciantar got out of the car and started kicking the mudguard of their car. Mr Xuereb said he got out of the car and told her it was dangerous for him to reverse into the Coast Road. Then a group of her relatives assaulted him. They grabbed him from the neck and threw him on the ground.
Meanwhile, Ms Zammit got out of the car and said that one of the men with Ms Ciantar grabbed her from her hair and pushed her to the ground and hit her. A passer-by intervened and helped her back into the car.
She went to the Mosta health centre as she had scratches on her chest and arms and pieces of hair had been pulled out.
The doctor who examined Ms Ciantar said she had not broken her arm. In May 2014 Ms Ciantar retracted the complaint she filed against the couple.
The magistrate ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the couple and cleared them.