A magistrate told police officers that a man accused of attempting to assault her had threatened to kill her, a police inspector, as well as his family. 

Sergeant Duncan Demicoli said Magistrate Miriam Hayman had told him this as he was investigating an incident involving convict Pasqualino Cefai, 39, in her courtroom at around midday last Thursday. 

He told Magistrate Audrey Demicoli that after being taken down to the lock-up beneath the Law Courts, Mr Cefai continued his fit of rage, broke a mirror and injured himself when he banged his head against a locker.

“Magistrate Miriam Hayman told me that he threatened to kill her, and that he also threatened to kill Police Inspector Johan Fenech and his family,” he said.

He was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Cefai, from Zebbug, who stands charged with assaulting and threatening the magistrate, resisting arrest, disobeying police orders, slightly injuring a police officer, and to relapsing.

A police constable also told the court how Mr Cefai was enraged when the magistrate fined him for contempt of court after she had warned him not to speak to her when he was complaining that his lawyer had not arrived in the courtroom. 

"She ordered him to get out of her courtroom and he started shouting, telling the magistrate that she will pay for it and that she was leaving his children without any money to eat," constable Ryan Ungaro Mifsud said. 

“He attempted to assault the magistrate, and resisted arrest when we intervened. He started pushing and even tore up his jacket. By that time, the magistrate had entered her chambers and told us to arrest him and take him outside."

Mr Cefai was recently jailed for seven years over his involvement in a Gozo courtroom stabbing two years ago. 

Mr Ungaro Mifsud said that as soon as Mr Cefai was handcuffed he heard him warning the inspector that he would pay for it and to remember that his siblings were outside the courtroom. 

He said Mr Cefai also turned to him and told him that he would "pull his eyes out" if he were to handcuff him again. 

Throughout this afternoon's sitting, Mr Cefai sat in the dock handcuffed. 

The case continues. 

Inspector Daryl Borg prosecuted while Lawyers Edward Gatt and Noel Bianco represented Mr Cefai.