Magistrate Miriam Hayman told a court today how a man threatened to kill her, a police inspector and his family in a fit of rage in her courtroom last October.
Testifying in the compilation of evidence against Pasqualino Cefai, 35, of Zebbug, Gozo, Magistrate Hayman said he was "very agitated and even ripped his own jacket" with rage.
Mr Cefai is facing charges related to the courtroom incident that took place on October 2 last year. He stands charged with threatening and insulting the magistrate, disobeying police orders, resisting and assaulting several police officers, injuring a constable, breaching the peace, swearing in public and breaking a glass pane in the police lock-up in the basement of the Law Courts edifice.
Mr Cefai is currently serving time over a stabbing in a Gozo courtroom three years ago.
"He threatened to kill me and even threatened to kill Police Inspector Johann Fenech and his family," she said as she recalled how Mr Cefai "lost it" when she ordered him out of the courtroom.
"I had two cases left, including Mr Cefai's. We called his lawyer several times but he did not turn up so we started the case over the repayment of a loan. He was agitated and started complaining that his lawyer was not present. At one point he stood up and began the threats. I told him to be quiet once, twice, three times and then found him in contempt of court. When I saw that he was becoming physically agitated, I warned him that I was prepared to continue hearing the case without him or his lawyer but when he continued, I ordered that he be led out of the courtroom," Magistrate Hayman said.
She said there were three inspectors and two other police officers who all began trying to restrain him but they had a difficult time. As soon as four or five police officers approached him, he began hitting them haphazardly.
"He was hitting the police, threatened to kill me and the inspector and to pay me back. When I saw this situation, I decided to retire to my chambers from where I could hear him shouting and swearing," she said.
"He did not touch me. He just threatened me verbally," the magistrate added.
Mr Cefai interjected during her testimony to apologise for his actions: "I apologise once again and promise that it will not happen again," he told the magistrate, to which she replied: "Thank you Mr Cefai."
Her deputy registrar, Benjamina Mifsud, told the court under cross examination that Magistrate Hayman had warned Mr Cefai that she was prepared to continue hearing the case without him or his lawyers if he continued to misbehave.
The case continues next month.
Inspector Daryl Borg prosecuted while Lawyers Edward Gatt and Noel Bianco represented Mr Cefai.