Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1501789
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 21 JUNE 2023 NEWS NEWS Man remanded in custody for grievously injuring ex-partner's daughter during argument MATTHEW AGIUS A man has been remanded in custody on charges of grievously injuring his ex-part- ner's adult daughter after she attempted to intervene in an argument between the two. Inspector Colin Sheldon charged 43 year-old Milovan Camilleri from Żab- bar with grievously injuring the daugh- ter, as well as with attacking her and her mother on 13 June at the woman's home in Fgura. The court was told that Camilleri had been in a relationship with the older woman, which had ended last Novem- ber. Despite the breakup, he would still go to her house to carry out unspecified works. Camilleri entered a plea of not guilty. His lawyer requested bail, which was not objected to by the prosecution as long as a protection order was issued in favour of the two women. The court observed that there ap- peared to be some reticence in giving details of what happened and that the accounts given this morning by both sides did not tally, nor did they make sense. Reading from the current incident re- port, the magistrate noted the mother having told the police that the daugh- ter had asked the defendant to leave the house. She had been coughing and he had told her to stop "because she was making everyone sick." The daughter had told him to stop, but he had started hitting the mother on the head with an egg carton instead. At one point, he had become enraged and had punched the mother in the face. However, the court noted, the daugh- ter's account added that when the mother had warned the defendant that she would phone up his mother, he be- came very angry and tried to snatch the mother's phone out of her hand. The daughter had stopped him from doing so, at which point he had told her not to interfere and headbutted her in the face. Lawyer Yanika Bugeja was appointed legal aid defence counsel. She told the court that the defendant lived with his mother and had met the older victim while recovering from an operation. He was unemployed but would carry out works at the woman's house, even after their relationship ended, she said. She pointed out that the alleged vic- tim's accounts of events did not tally and that the defendant had been trying to help out at home at the time. The court asked the prosecution whether the mother had been informed of today's sitting. She had not, replied inspector Sheldon, explaining that on- ly the daughter had been told due to an oversight. Magistrate Frendo Dimech point- ed out that the Victims of Crime Act placed an onus on the police to inform the victim of sittings and allow them to participate. Bail was denied. A 43-year-old man from Żabbar has been charged with grievously injuring his ex-partner's adult daughter after a heated argument between the two turned violent Demands for magistrate's recusal not driven by fear, Joseph Muscat insists KARL AZZOPARDI FORMER Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insists his demands for the removal of the magistrate oversee- ing the hospitals inquiry is not driv- en by fear. "I fear nothing and no one, that is a stupid question to ask, if you read what has been said, you realise that what you are saying does not make sense," Muscat told journalists when asked whether his demands were driven by fear. The former PM is set to testify in the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday afternoon. He will answer questions about the National Audit Office investigation into the con- tract granted to consortium Elec- trogas for the Delimara gas plant. Muscat's lawyers have requested the inquiry be halted until a deci- sion on his request for the removal of the magistrate conducting the inquiry into the hospitals privatisa- tion deal be taken. He made the request as part of a constitutional application filed on his behalf by lawyer Charlon Goud- er, following the inquiring magis- trate's refusal of his application re- questing her recusal. Muscat's lawyer had originally ar- gued that the inquiring magistrate should recuse herself because her father and brother had shared Face- book posts by Repubblika in 2019 and it had been Repubblika that filed the initial report which had led to the inquiry. Another family member had also "written against the party (Labour), which many times is synonymous with the lead- er ("mexxej") and associates them with the dodgy dealings ("taħwid") relating to the hospitals," reads the application. The application also stressed that before she was elevated to the Bench, Magistrate Vella had prac- tised law at her father's law firm, to- gether with her brother. This meant that this meant her relationship to these two of his detractors "was closer than simply blood ties." Disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says questioning on whether his requests for the recusal of the magistrate overseeing the hospitals inquiry are driven by fear is 'stupid' Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat