A man serving life imprisonment for stabbing his partner 49 times in front of their daughter has had seven years added to his term after he attacked a fellow inmate with a blade. He blinded him in one eye when he slashed an eyeball.

Norbert Schembri was found guilty slashing Noel Borg in the face with a makeshift knife on June 1, 2010. The court heard how Mr Borg argued with Mr Schembri over something he had told him a week before about his father.  

Court-appointed psychiatrists said Mr Schembri was taken over by a state of fear at the time of the crime, since Mr Borg had threatened him. However, they said this did not affect his ability to know what he was doing.

Mr Schembri claimed that he had been provoked but Magistrate Audrey Demicoli ruled that for this line of defence to stand, the provocation had to come immediately prior to the incident. In this case, the alleged provocation happened a week before.

While also finding him guilty of relapsing, Magistrate Demicoli jailed him for a further seven years and ordered him not to speak to Mr Borg against a €500 fine in default.

Mr Schembri had been convicted in January 2009 of stabbing Josette Scicluna, 32, the mother of his child, about 49 times in May 2004. His daughter, then aged seven, had witnessed the first part of the attack before she was taken away by a neighbour.

He had shot open the door of her flat and chased her into the kitchen where he cornered her between the refrigerator and the wall and stabbed her relentlessly.

His criminal record has no fewer than 12 convictions for driving offences, possession of cannabis, heroin and cocaine and trafficking drugs.