865 cases of domestic violence were reported to the police between January and August this year, Social Welfare minister Michael Farrugia told Beppe Fenech Adami (PN) in reply to a parliamentary question yesterday.

Court action is taken after an investigation.

Times of Malta reported earlier this year that the police received 1,272 domestic violence reports in 2016.

Ten years ago, the figure stood at just 116.
 
Data tabled in Parliament in February showed that last year, the majority of victims who filed reports to the police had suffered psychological harm (577 cases) and slight bodily harm through physical force (579 cases). In 2015, there were 1,205 cases reported, up from 1046 in 2014.

There were 37 cases of stalking reported to the police and 33 cases of slight bodily harm through the use of “irregular weapons”.

Another 31 reports were filed by victims of serious bodily harm caused by physical force.

The remainder of the cases were related to serious injuries caused by weapons, the data showed. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.