A court this morning heard how a woman claiming to have received 46,000 Facebook messages from her alleged stalker had previously told him she suffered from a bipolar disorder – a mental condition which results in drastic mood swings.

A set of photographs dating back to last summer portraying the alleged victim in her swimsuit in the company of the accused was also exhibited by the defence.  

Neil Attard

This evidence emerged during the hearing of the case against former Xghajra Labour deputy mayor Neil Attard, who is accused of harassing his former girlfriend with whom he had a relationship in 2013. Mr Attard has been expelled from the party, and is now an independent councillor.

Taking the witness stand, the alleged victim today testified that the accused would not accept the fact that their relationship was over. She said he kept harassing her through Facebook, text messages on her mobile phone and anonymous calls.

Although he last phoned her on November 29, the woman claimed that up to a few days ago, he tried to contact her using fake profiles on Facebook.

Police inspector Bernie Valletta, confirmed in court that the existence of anonymous calls originating from the accused’s mobile phone.

The alleged victim said that on one occasion, the man did not conceal his mobile number, saying that she recognised it was him as his number was saved under the contact “psycho”.

“He used to threaten me by showing up at my place of work, turn up outside my house at 1am,” she told Magistrate Saviour Demicoli who is presiding this case.

The woman also recounted how the man had also turned up with a knife outside her daughter’s school.

She added that last July she had accepted an invitation to meet the accused at the beach in Marsascala in a bid to solve the matter once and for all.

During cross examination, defence lawyer David Gatt exhibited a set of photos in which the woman was posing in her swimsuit with the accused on the same day they had been to the beach last July.  Dr Gatt also exhibited an SMS which the woman had sent to his client a year earlier, stating that she suffered from a bipolar disorder.

Asked for an explanation, the witness admitted that she had sent the message but insisted that she did not suffer from such mental condition.

“I made it up as I was frightened something would happen to me,” she testified.

The woman’s estranged husband also took the witness stand, saying that he used to receive a series of anonymous calls. He added that after filing a police report, it transpired that the caller had been Mr Attard, who would, however, say nothing during the call.

The court acceded to the request filed by the prosecution led by police inspector Jason Busuttil, and placed the woman, her estranged husband and their daughter under a protection order.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is appearing parte civile for the victim, and Veronique Dalli for her estranged husband.