A man who was not charged with attempted murder despite telling a man he wanted to kill him as he repeatedly hit him with the butt of a shotgun, has been jailed for nine months. 

John Grech, 54, from Qormi, was convicted of seriously injuring Anthony Spiteri on October 11, 2011, when he beat him with his (Mr Spiteri's) own shotgun as he was leaving his residence to go hunting. 

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard Mr Spiteri explain how the previous evening, his wife had come home and told him that Mr Grech had pinned her against the garage door and almost forced her to get into his car. 

They were about to go file a police report when his wife convinced him to leave it to the following morning so as not to alarm the children. 

The next morning, he came face to face with Mr Grech as he was placing his hunting gear in the back of his van. 

He said he told him to leave them in peace because they had never done anything to him. But as he turned, Mr Grech assaulted him and he fell to the ground. 

As he lay on the ground, Mr Grech grabbed Mr Spiteri's unloaded gun and repeatedly hit him with its buttstock. When she heard the commotion, his wife Grace Spiteri ran outside and also received a blow.

Mrs Spiteri told the court that the accused had been making repeated sexual advances,  which she had kept a secret from her husband to keep the peace, for some time. 

She said her husband told Mr Grech to stop as he was going to kill him, to which he replied: "I want to kill you" as he dealt more blows to Mr Spiteri's face. 

Mr Spiteri suffered a broken arm, a broken nose and several lacerations to his face. 

Mr Grech testified that it was Mr Spiteri who first hit him with his shotgun without any warning as he was walking towards his car that was parked close to Mr Spiteri's. He said he struggled with Mr Spiteri and eventually managed to take the weapon, taking it to the police station as evidence. 

But Magistrate Clarke noted how Mr Grech's black eye and a few scratch marks, did not tally with his version of events, saying it was obvious that Mr Spiteri's injuries were the result of several blows. 

Aside from being covered in blood, the shotgun was damaged during the incident, leading the court to conclude that it was truly used to deal the blows. 

She therefore found Mr Grech guilty of seriously injuring Mr Spiteri, aggravated with the use of a weapon, damaging the gun and breaching the peace.

As she cleared him of relapsing after the prosecution had failed to authenticate a 1983 judgment, the magistrate jailed him for nine months, the minimum term prescribed by law.