The suspected culprit behind an episode described by police as “a very serious case of domestic violence” was on Tuesday cleared of all charges after his alleged victim testified she did not recall anything about the ordeal.

Ans Algheziwi, the 30-year old Tripoli-born offender of St Paul’s Bay, had been denied bail upon his arraignment following his arrest by the police who entered his home where they found him sleeping off the after effects of the previous night’s bout of drinking.

The police had been acting upon a report filed by a foreign woman who had turned up at the Qawra Police station, visibly battered and claiming to have suffered the abuse at the hands of the man who had been her partner for the past six months.

The foreign woman had several bruises and bite marks, besides reddish weals compatible to a beating with a belt which she alleged to have endured at the hands of the accused.

Yet when proceedings against the man continued this morning, the woman declared, from the witness stand, that she had no recollection of the violence, thereby leading the court, presided over by magistrate Charmaine Galea, to clear the accused on the basis of a lack of evidence.

Inspector Godwin Scerri prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.