An intellectually disabled woman spent the past nine years locked up in her bedroom with two dogs and a bucket for her needs for hours on end, performing unpaid labour, a court heard yesterday.
Prosecuting officer Joseph Busuttil yesterday relayed to the court the harrowing account of the 39-year-old woman, forced to spend 17 hours a day locked up in a room dubbed a “bedroom”, with just a bed and a few belongings, two dogs and a bucket to use as a lavatory.
Anna Maria Jimenez is pleading not guilty to locking up the victim, threatening her, assaulting her and causing her slight injuries. She was also charged with threatening a 29-year-old woman who had been her flatmate for the past five months.
Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how Ms Jimenez, a 33-year-old Maltese woman who works as a cleaner at Mater Dei Hospital, would lock up the victim every night at 10pm. She would give the victim Playmobil parts for her to assemble, which she would then proceed to sell to the factory.
The victim, who is able to communicate, told the police she was ‘thankful’ for the job since it provided her with something to engage with during the long hours of solitary confinement.
The accused would not unlock her before the following day at 3pm when she returned from work and would feed her and clean the room. During the investigation, it was found that the accused had allegedly cashed the victim’s unemployment benefits and disability allowance cheques, pocketing the money herself.
Inspector Busuttil told the court that the incident came to light after the flatmate approached Appoġġ and revealed the chilling situation she witnessed during her five-month stint in the rented Birżebbuġa flat.
Ms Jimenez had helped the flatmate to find a job as a cleaner at the hospital and would use this fact as leverage on her, threatening her that she would lose her job if she did not comply with her wishes. The accused allegedly pressured her into paying more money for the rent, eventually demanding her credit card details and PIN number. She also destroyed her SIM card and gave her another mobile phone line in an attempt to isolate her from her family and friends.
Defence lawyer Mario Spiteri rebutted the accusations, telling the court that the accused and the victim had lived in peace for nine years, but that matters changed when the flatmate moved in.
He argued that the flatmate was jealous of Ms Jimenez’s partner, a police officer who often slept over at the flat. Inspector Busuttil pointed out that while he did not find any evidence of wrongdoing from his end, he had passed on the police officer’s file for him to be internally investigated.
The defence’s request for bail was rejected by the magistrate due to the fact that the victim was a vulnerable person.
An expert was appointed to analyse the mobile phone communication between the flatmate and Ms Jimenez.
The court also imposed a protection order in favour of the flatmate and the victim throughout the duration of the proceedings.