Gheorghe Popa has been jailed for six years for injuring his former partner Yana Mintoff Bland with a knife at her residence in Tarxien in October last year.

The 40-year-old Romanian was also convicted of hurting her son. 

Ms Mintoff Bland and Mr Popa had argued when he resisted her attempts to break off their relationship.  After attacking Ms Mintoff Bland and her son, Mr Popa had also injured himself.

In a 70-page judgement, Magistrate Joe Mifsud ordered Mr Popa to pay €12,600 in court expenses and warned him not to approach Ms Mintoff Bland.

READ: Court hears accounts of Yana Mintoff Bland stabbing incident

The magistrate said Mr Popa was a danger not only to Ms Mintoff Bland and her son, but to society at large. 

"This sort of violence will not be tolerated," he said.

"In our society we are witnessing relationships often built on sand or through social networking and when these fall apart there may be individuals who refuse to accept that such relationships have an expiry date,” Magistrate Mifsud declared.

Ms Mintoff Bland is a former Labour Party electoral candidate and the daughter of late Prime Minister Dom Mintoff. 

READ: "I was facing death" - Yana Mintoff gives account of incident which led to stabbings

The court had a sharp word for the media, pointing out that there had been 'irresponsible coverage' of this case in certain quarters and remarking about “the lack of sensitivity which had been shown in respect of the victims.”

“These proceedings involved a person who had been in a relationship with the daughter of a man who influenced the socio-political history of our country for almost an entire century,” commented the court, adding that journalists and bloggers have obligations besides rights.

Pointing out that trial by the public out on the streets or on Facebook or ‘a la’ carte justice’ was against the true interests of justice, the court hit out at certain reports related to the case which which were ‘based on fantasy rather than on evidence presented in court.’

Inspector Spiridione Zammit prosecuted.

Lawyer Benjamin Valenzia was defence counsel.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio appeared parte civile.

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