A young man sent anonymous messages and letter to his own partner as part of a ploy to get her to move in with him, a court heard on Monday.

Shaun Ray Belli, a 27-year old from Fgura, was remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to stalking and harassing the woman.

Mr Belli faces charges of stalking, harassment, making a false statement and misuse of electronic communication equipment.

Prosecuting Inspector Jonathan Ransley explained that the man’s partner, whose name was banned from publication under court order, had been receiving anonymous letters and messages in her mail box, which prompted her to file a police report.

Mr Belli accompanied her to the police station on that occasion, a court heard, but it later turned out that he himself had sent the mail.

Defence counsel David Gatt made a request for bail, arguing that his client had been living with the alleged victim up to the very day of his arrest, adding that there had been no use of physical violence.

“This was simply a love trick,” Dr Gatt went on, explaining that his client had allegedly invented a ploy to lure the woman to take up residence at his home, using a different SIM card to send her messages.

There was no reason to deny him bail, Dr Gatt argued, prompting duty magistrate Joseph Mifsud to remark that playing with a person’s emotions amounted to moral violence which often caused harm that took longer to heal than “a punch on the face.”

Seizing the opportunity, magistrate Mifsud observed that lawyers ought to be given fresh training to deal with domestic violence cases.

Inspector Ransley objected to the request for bail since the man had bombarded his unsuspecting partner with a large number of messages in a very short span of time and had accompanied her to the police station carrying her child.

The inspector further noted that the man knew where the alleged victim and her children lived.

In the light of such submissions, the court turned down the request for bail, remanding the man in custody.

“These are serious cases. There were cases which started off in this manner and ended up with a person being killed,” the magistrate observed.

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