A prisoner tried to assault a magistrate because he was angered by her decision to go ahead with proceedings in the absence of his lawyer, a court heard yesterday.

“After explaining to my client that his behaviour was wrong and unjustifiable on all counts, he told he me he felt antagonised by the court’s decision to go ahead with proceedings [in the absence of the defence counsel] even though there were other cases which could have been heard,” lawyer Edward Gatt testified.

Dr Gatt was testifying  in the case against his client Pasqualino Cefai, 35, from Żebbuġ Gozo who is facing charges of threatening to kill Magistrate Miriam Hayman, and Inspector Johann Fenech together with his family.

The case took place on October 2 last year when Magistrate Hayman ordered that a case against Mr Cefai continue even though his lawyer was not present in the courtroom.

In a fit of rage, Mr Cefai was seen trying to approach the Bench. He was restrained by six policemen. The accused is already serving seven years in jail over a stabbing in a Gozo courtroom in 2012. 

Testifying before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, Dr Gatt said that on the morning of the incident he had to appear in court on behalf of three other clients.

He remarked that he had made a verbal request to the court so that proceedings would not start in his absence, saying that otherwise his client would get easily “unnerved”.

Dr Gatt recounted that when his client's case started to be heard he was in the building but nobody bothered to inform him.

“Nobody phoned me, even though there was no such obligation, and no court marshal had notified me that the hearing had commenced,” he said. 

After being taken down to the lock-up beneath the law courts, Mr Cefai, in a fit of rage, smashed a mirror and injured himself after banging his head against a locker, a police sergeant testified. 

The case has been adjourned for October 15.