Minutes before Pasqualino Cefai attempted to assault a magistrate in a courtroom, he was warned that if he continued to insist on the presence of his lawyer for his case to be heard, he would be found in contempt of court.

As the compilation of evidence continued this morning before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, Police Inspector Dennis Theuma confirmed that he heard the warning.

Mr Cefai, 34, from Żebbuġ, Gozo, is serving seven years in jail over a stabbing in a Gozo courtroom in 2012. He also stands charged with threatening to kill Magistrate Miriam Hayman.

He is also charged with disobeying, resisting and assaulting several police officers, injuring a constable, breaching the peace, swearing in public and breaking a glass pane.

The incident took place in the courtroom at about 11am on October 2 when Magistrate Hayman ordered that a case against Mr Cefai continue even though his lawyer was not present. In a fit of rage, Mr Cefai was seen trying to approach the Bench.

Mr Theuma explained that Mr Cefai began insisting that he wanted his lawyer and then stepped up his complaints, even threatening to kill the magistrate as well as a police inspector and his family.

He was also heard saying that his brothers would take care of whatever he could not.

Mr Cefai was eventually retrained and was escorted out of the courtroom, he said.

The case continues next year when Magistrate Hayman is expected to testify on what happened in her courtroom that day.