Man charged with trashing his ex-partner’s house

A man has been remanded in custody after allegedly letting himself into his estranged partner’s house and trashing it, as well as threatening the woman.

Inspector Sherona Buhagiar arraigned the 50-year-old man from Fgura on charges of causing his ex-partner to fear violence, breaching a restraining order, committing an offence while on bail, criminal damage and threatening the woman with an improvised weapon.

He was further charged with having threatened three police officers in a bid to intimidate them into not performing their duties on 5 May and breaching a restraining order.

Inspector Buhagiar told Magistrate Giannella Camilleri Busuttil that a woman had filed a police report claiming that her ex-partner had entered her apartment without her permission, turned on the radio “full blast”, before going on a destructive rampage inside her home.

Police officers arrested him in the act of smashing items on the ground, she said, adding that the man had also threatened the officers.

Both he and his partner were convicted of offences against each other last February and had been placed under mutual restraining orders.

Lawyer Peter Paul Zammit, assisting the man as defence counsel, informed the court that his client was pleading not guilty to the charges, but was not requesting bail because “the only habitable address he has is the matrimonial home and although he had been offered the option of living with his mother, she is 89 years old and he does not want to trouble her.”

“The defendant does not want to return to his house as long as his partner is residing there, due to a number of incidents, including today’s, in which he is insisting that he is being victimised by her.”

Lawyer Matthew Xuereb, who is assisting the woman as parte civile together with lawyer Jeanine Depasquale, said that the couple have a long history of marital problems and that the courts had warned the man time and again to find a middle ground with his former partner about access to the house.

Inspector Buhagiar added that previous courts had drawn up a roster stipulating when either party could use the property, but said that the defendant was not sticking to it.