Unemployed mother of seven remanded in custody over assault

The defence for unemployed 33-year-old Rosemarie Pace pleaded for bail for the mother of seven, who was accused of causing grievous injuries to a functionary in a children's home, claiming the simple incident had escalated with bad consequences.

Dr Simon Micallef Stafrace told the court that the mother should be granted bail, to be able to tend to her children.

Prosecuting Inspector Kenneth Haber opposed bail and explained that the children were under a care order at the Richmond Foundation, but that they had managed to run away.

When the mother found the children she returned them to the home and in an ensuring argument, she pushed operations manager Holger Saliba to the floor. In the incident the man hit his head against the floor, suffering grievous injuries.

The woman is also accused of assaulting a senior therapeutic worker, Andrew Barbieri, and relapsing.

Inspector Haber agreed with the defence that this had been a simple incident, but called on the court to consider that Saliba was only carrying out his duty when he was attacked.

Pace's defence said that a protection order for Saliba was enough in the eyes of the law, when granting bail to the accused. "It is the duty of the police to hasten the witnesses to take the stand and it is unacceptable that an accused is kept under arrest for long months until evidence is brought forward," Micallef Stafrace said.

Magistrate Anthony Vella remanded the accused in custody and solicited the prosecution to summons all the witnesses in the first sitting.