A man jailed for six months after slightly injuring a woman this morning saw his term reduced to 52 days following an appeal.

Youssef Mbarrek was jailed for six months on March 10 for slightly injuring a woman during a domestic fight, threatening her and refusing to give his particulars to the police.

He appealed saying his crime had been a one-off and not regular, as the charge had implied.

He also argued that the fact that he was a first time offender had not been taken into account and his police record was clean. He referred to similar previous judgements where suspended jail terms were given.

Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano said this was a one-off incident which lasted a number of hours. However, one could not imply that it took place on more than one occasion.

The rule in cases of physical and moral violence, he said, should be effective imprisonment and this applied more forcefully in cases of domestic violence.

However, if the lower courts opted not to follow such sentencing policy, there was nothing the Appeal’s Court could do in the absence of an appeal by the Attorney General. So it was useless for the accused to quote sentences of the lower courts.

In this case, Mr Justice de Gaetano said, the court had to reduce the sentence because his crime was not a regular one.

He revoked the previous sentence and jailed Mr Mbarrak for 52 days.