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2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2016 News Court hears policewoman's tearful account of attack by traffic warden MAT THEW AGIUS A heavily pregnant police con- stable has told a court how an off-duty warden, consumed by road rage, had reached through her open car window and un- did her seatbelt before his wife pulled him away. Warden Michael Grech, 47, was summoned before Magis- trate Joe Mifsud yesterday to answer to charges of assaulting a public servant, using foul lan- guage in public, causing volun- tary damage to the constable's car and committing an offence that he was in duty bound to prevent. The officer, who is due to give birth next week, testified yester- day. "I had finished work at the depot and there was a lot of traf- fic. I pulled out slowly from the junction because there was a lot of traffic." The constable told the court: "I heard this man tell his wife, 'I don't want to give way, she can go f*** herself '," before turning to the officer and telling her to do precisely that. Her voice breaking with emo- tion, the officer recalled how she had begged him not to cause her distress as she was pregnant. "I told him not to swear in front of his son, I said 'I am eight months pregnant, don't stress me out'." The officer said she had then produced her police ID card which she was sure that he had seen, but the accused carried on regardless. "Actually, it enraged him further... he started swear- ing and insulting me, he was not ashamed, not even in front of his son..." She sobbed inconsolably as she remembered that, in her ter- ror at seeing him get out of his car and approach hers, she had switched on the hazard lights instead of rolling up the win- dows. The video she took on her mo- bile phone was a mistake, she said, saying her intention was to take a photograph of the licence plate. "Don't film me, I am a warden! I don't give a f*** about the po- lice and the Commissioner," he had said, before smashing her wing mirror. Grech reached in and undid her seatbelt before his wife pulled him away, said the woman. The terrified officer then locked the car from the inside. Such was her state of shock that she had called 199 by mistake. "He was hitting my window so hard, I thought he was going to smash it," the officer said. Then he got back in his car. She went to make a report at Ze- jtun, not Valletta, as it was on her way home. Defence law yer Roberto Mon- talto cross-examined the wit- ness. He asked if she had passed a comment when the accused had not given way. She hadn't, she said, sobbing again. The car after his had given way. "I took out my mobile because he started swearing at me. Then he said 'I will break you and break your mobile.' All I told him was not to blaspheme or swear at me." She confirmed that she was not wearing her uniform as she was heavily pregnant. "There were a lot of onlookers and people hooting but nobody came to my aid, except the man's wife. Thank god she intervened and pushed him away, because I don't know how I would have ended up." Prosecuting police inspec- tor Jeffrey Scicluna informed the court that CCTV had not yet been gathered, earning him an admonition from the magis- trate, who pointed out that this should have been done imme- diately as it was an important piece of evidence. A screengrab from the video the victim filmed during the confrontation Men accused in Swieqi stabbing released on bail MATTHEW AGIUS TWO Libyan men who had been held under arrest in connec- tion with last month's near-fatal stabbing in Swieqi, were released on bail yesterday as the compi- lation of evidence against them continued. Zouhir Elfezqa, 31, who lives in Swieqi and a second man, 21-year-old Mohammed Abdul Hafid Abukem, also of Swieqi are accused of the attempted murder of Wadea Al Maghrbi, 25, as well as inf licting grievous injuries on him and Mohamed Hafed Al-Arara on 30 January. Al Maghrbi and Mohamed Ab- dul Hafid Abukem had called at an apartment occupied by Elfezqa and al-Arara that day. A confrontation with Elfezqa en- sued, during which Al Maghrbi was stabbed and left in danger of dying. Al-Maghrbi is undergoing sep- arate proceedings, on charges of attempting to inf lict grievous bodily harm on Elfezqa, causing him slight injuries, holding him against his will and carrying a knife without a police permit. Dr Jonathan Joslyn testified that when he had treated him, Al Maghrbi had been "in stage 3 of 4 of hypovolemic shock caused by massive blood loss". A branch of the femoral artery had been sliced into, explained the doctor. Forensic expert Dr Mario Scerri testified to having exam- ined photographs of the wound, which had been handed to him by Joslyn as Scerri had arrived after they had been sutured. The single stab wound was compat- ible with a single-edged blade, Scerri said. Later that day, he had inspected Elfezqa, whom he identified in court. Elfezqa had a cut on his chin and a bruise to his spine, Scerri confirmed. Three abra- sions on the back of his thigh, compatible with a pointed ob- ject were also found and the seat of his jeans had been ripped in a manner compatible with the abrasions, the doctor added. Presiding Magistrate Josette Demicoli granted Abukem and Al Maghrbi bail against a deposit of €2,000 and a personal guaran- tee of €13,000. Elfezqa had al- ready been released on bail at a previous sitting. Police inspectors James Grech and Elton Taliana are prosecut- ing. Law yer Arthur Azzopardi appeared for Elfezqa, whilst law- yer Martin Fenech represented Abukem. Giannella de Marco appeared for Al Maghrbi. Former Xghajra deputy mayor sent 'over 46,000 Facebook messages' to ex-girlfriend, court told MAT THEW AGIUS A court has heard a woman claim to have received over 46,000 Facebook messages from former Xghajra Labour deputy mayor Neil Attard. Magistrate Saviour Demicoli was hearing evidence in a case against Attard, who is accused of harassing his ex-girlfriend, Diane Linwood, with whom he had a relationship which end- ed last year. Attard has since been expelled from the La- bour party and is now an independent councillor. Taking the witness stand yesterday, the alleged vic- tim said that the accused had not accepted the fact that their relationship was over and had persistently harassed her through Face- book messages, texts and anon- ymous phone calls. Although the last call she re- ceived from him was on Novem- ber 29, the woman claimed that just a few days ago, he had at- tempted to contact her through fake Facebook profiles. Police inspector Bernie Vallet- ta confirmed that anonymous calls had been made from the accused 's mobile phone. Linwood claimed that on one occasion, Attard had not hidden the mobile number he was call- ing from and she had saved his number in her address book as "psycho". "He used to threaten me by showing up at my place of work, or turn up outside my house at 1am," Linwood told the court. On one occasion, the man had also appeared outside her daughter's school, brandishing a knife. Last July, Linwood had accept- ed the accused 's invitation to meet on a beach in Marsaskala, with the aim of settling the is- sue. Defence law yer David Gatt, cross-examining the woman, exhibited a number of photos of her in her swimsuit, pos- ing with the accused during that meeting at the beach. Gatt confronted the woman with an SMS which she had sent to the accused a year earlier, in which she claimed to be suffering from bipolar disorder. The witness admitted to send- ing the message but insisted that she did not suffer from the disorder, claiming to have made it up as she was frightened that some- thing untoward would happen to her. Linwood 's estranged husband was also sum- moned to testif y yester- day. He told the court that he, too, had re- ceived a series of anony- mous calls in which the caller would remain silent, adding that after filing a po- lice report, the caller had been identified as Attard. At the request of the prosecu- tion, the court placed the wom- an, her estranged husband and their daughter under a protec- tion order. Law yer Jason Azzopardi ap- peared parte civile for the wom- an. Law yer Veronique Dalli is representing her estranged hus- band. No reply from Maltese to Cornwall inquest on tourist's Comino death THE circumstances in which a mental health worker from Bod- min, UK, died in Malta may never be known, an inquest heard. Tim Mason, 59, drowned near the Blue Lagoon on Comino while on holiday on 15 June last year, near where two other British tour- ists had drowned two weeks ear- lier. Mason was airlifted to hospital, where he died shortly after arrival. Cornwall assistant coroner Bar- rie van den Berg, said attempts by his office to gain information from the Maltese about exactly what had happened in relation to Ma- son's death had gone without reply. Mason's sister, Elizabeth Pur- chase, told the inquest in Truro she had visited the island after her brother's death. She said Mason was a competent swimmer. "The only circumstances that I know are that Tim was pulled out of the water by lifeguards, but he was un- responsive," she said. "I've been to the island and it's very difficult to enter the sea there. There are only a few places to do so because there are lots of rocks, so it is possible he was on a life- guard beach." Purchase said she could only as- sume he went swimming around nearby caves, and the sea condi- tions deteriorated. A post-mortem examination concluded that Mason's cause of death was drowning and that he suffered from coronary heart dis- ease.