A 79-year-old man has been handed a suspended sentence after admitting to seriously injuring a 29-year-old supermarket employee when he stabbed him at a shopping complex in November 2013. 

Antonio Borg, from Zebbug, Gozo, pleaded guilty to stabbing Josef Galea who had intervened during an argument between Mr Borg and the manager of the shopping complex. The manager had stopped the elderly man from entering the premises holding bags. 

Magistrate Joseph Mifsud heard how the elderly man was "lonely" and had no one to look after him because all his relatives had emigrated to Australia. He jailed him for six months but suspended the jail term for a period of two years. 

Mr Borg had been arrested on November 25, 2013, after he slashed the man with a knife at The Duke's shopping complex in Victoria. 

Mr Borg also pleaded guilty to seriously injuring Mr Galea, assaulting him and manager Walter Michael Farrugia, threatening them, causing them to fear that violence will be used against them, breaching the peace and to being in possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. 

The court heard how the man lives at the long-stay ward at the Gozo General Hospital and had no one to look after him. Defence counsel Joe Ellis said his client was sorry for what he did and had apologised.

Magistrate Mifsud, however, said that it was unacceptable for someone to settle an argument by stabbing another person, adding that the court could not tolerate situations where people took the law into their own hands, turning the country into a jungle. 

As he highlighted the suffering of the elderly who live alone, with no one to turn to or keep them company, he condemned him to a suspended jail term after considering the nature of the charges and the man's admission of guilty, as well as his special circumstances.