A woman who had allegedly received death threats from her partner in the past decided last Sunday that she had had enough, grabbing her hospital certificates showing the injuries she had sustained and reporting him to the police.

Serbian-born Dorde Markovic, a 29 year-old taxi driver, formerly residing at Swieqi, was remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to domestic violence charges.

He was accused of having grievously injured the woman without intending to kill her and also of having attempted to use force against her so as to insult or hurt her.

Prosecuting Inspector Leeroy Balzan Engerer explained that on Sunday morning, a woman turned up at the police station, claiming that she had been injured during a fight with her boyfriend the previous night.

The couple had been in a relationship over the past year and a half, the woman had explained, alleging that this had not been the first time she had faced death threats from her partner.

The alleged culprit was summoned to the police station for questioning, and held under arrest.

Upon his arraignment on Tuesday afternoon, the man pleaded not guilty, his lawyer pointing out that he had collaborated fully with investigators, had a clean criminal record and had not been the subject of any earlier report.

Moreover, the man had a regular job to keep and was to be presumed innocent, legal aid counsel Josette Sultana continued, stressing that all these factors mitigated in favour of bail.

However, the prosecution objected since the alleged victim was still to testify and moreover, since her alleged aggressor knew where she resided, the probability that he would “do something to her was very high”.

Having heard these submissions and in view of the circumstances of the case, duty magistrate Simone Grech turned down the request for bail, noting particularly the serious nature of the charges.

Inspector Matthew Spagnol also prosecuted.