Magistrate Consuelo Scerri-Herrera said today that she would file a complaint to the police against columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia for insulting her as she came out of a court room this afternoon.

The incident happened after the Magistrate gave evidence in the case instituted by the police against Ms Caruana Galizia for allegedly slandering the magistrate in various blogs on her website.

The magistrate claimed that Ms Caruana Galizia called her a liar as they came out of the court.

During her evidence, Magistrate Scerri-Herrera read out the parts of the blogs which she considered as being offensive and denied all claims that had been made.

She insisted that she had not organised any parties where drugs were taken. Nor was there anyone who had a record of taking drugs.

She said she had organised parties for charity, and produced documents to substantiate her testimony.

The magistrate also referred to comments about property in Gozo and said that when this case first came up, she referred to the Commission for the Administration of Justice which confirmed there was no wrongdoing.

During this morning's sitting, the court rejected pleas that the accused was being tried for the same crime twice, because of proceedings instituted against Ms Caruana Galizia by Robert Musumeci.

The court also held that the magistrate had a right to be represented by a private lawyer.

The court turned down a request to issue a protection order for the magistrate by ordering a ban on the publication of blogs mentioning the magistrate.