A spurned teenage mother-to-be, held under preventive arrest over her alleged involvement in a massive brawl at a Ħamrun street last month, has been granted bail.
Natasha Bugeja, the 19-year old expectant mother, is currently facing proceedings over the attempted murder of seven persons, whom she allegedly tried to run over, slightly injuring three of them and damaging four vehicles.
Other charges relate to harassment, being in possession of a pointed weapon and breaching public peace.
Read: Pregnant woman charged with driving car at people, denied bail
The violent incident appears to have been the last in a series of episodes between the accused and her former boyfriend’s partner, Donna Pace, who today was the main witness to testify in the compilation of evidence against Ms Bugeja.
At the heart of the longstanding struggle between the two appears to be the man who, after breaking off his six-year relationship with Ms Pace, having fathered her son, spent two years with the accused, only to drop her for his former partner.
The rejected teenager allegedly embarked upon a series of provocative acts in respect of Ms Pace, the latter explained in court today, recalling how on one occasion she had been tailgated by the accused while driving with her children along December 13 Road in Marsa.
The woman described how she had to hit the gas to avoid being hit by bottles flung in the direction of her car by her aggressor, while the latter kept shouting “after burning down your door, now I’ll burn you”.
Having managed to get away on that occasion, trouble once again broke out when on January 7, Ms Pace was eating out at a Marsascala restaurant when her partner received a call from an unknown number.
The caller turned out to be Ms Bugeja who began to plead with the man to meet her for a drink.
When the man, Carlos, handed over the mobile phone to Ms Pace, a heated argument broke out between the two women. It was then that Ms Pace had allegedly told the younger woman that ‘she (Natasha) had every reason to be annoyed’ since after a two-year affair, her boyfriend had returned to his former partner.
The teenager had allegedly launched verbal abuse at the other woman and challenged her to a fight.
Later that evening, whilst driving to the Floriana Health Centre in the company of her sister and mother, where a one-month old baby needed treatment, Ms Pace recalled how they had dropped by at a confectionery in Abela Scolaro Street, Ħamrun.
It was then that Ms Bugeja had turned up, hurling abuse at her sister, Naomi. As the argument flared up, the accused and Donna Pace came to blows, prompting the intervention of Kurt Grech, the man currently facing proceedings over the alleged murder of Donna’s brother, Brandon Pace.
The man allegedly stepped out of a parked van and approached the fray, declaring that no-one was to lay a finger upon Natasha.
As people spilled out of the shop, Ms Pace and her sister were about to take their leave when suddenly, the accused headed her car in their direction, crashing into their vehicle, inside which was the baby and a young child.
Replying to a question by the defence, the witness denied having been in possession of a hard object with which she had hit the accused during the violent fight.
The witness also denied having posted a family photo on Facebook along with the message “My father taught me that it’s important to win the battle but even more important to win the war.” This post had allegedly appeared just one hour before the fight on January 7, a fact denied by Ms Pace, prompting the lawyer to insist that the message had been altered after the incident.
Two other siblings of Ms Pace, Samantha and Naomi, also testified, giving more or less the same details.
At the end of the hearing, magistrate Anthony Vella upheld the request for bail against a deposit of €1,000, a personal guarantee of €9,000 and an obligation to sign the bail book three times weekly. The court also imposed a curfew between 11pm and 6am.
Inspector Elliott Magro prosecuted. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Franco Debono were defence counsel.