Man charged with severely beating his grandmother

Two police officers told a court last Wednesday how they were shocked to find tufts of hair belonging to a severely beaten 60-year-old grandmother, scattered around her apartment in Floriana, when they responded to a disturbance early morning on 29 July.

The officers were testifying in the compilation of evidence against Nigel Zammit, 24, who is charged with the violent assault of his grandmother Emanuela Parsons, seriously injuring her, and relapsing.

The constables told Magistrate Edwina Grima how they found Emanuela Parsons crouched on the floor in the corridor of her apartment in Pinto Flats, Floriana.

“She was sobbing, looked dazed and with evident bruising to her face,” one officer said, adding that they were shocked to also notice tufts of hair which were torn out of the old woman’s scalp laying in the corridor, on the kitchen floor and in her bedroom.

“It immediately appeared to us that the woman was dragged from her hair around the entire apartment,” he said.

The officer explained that he knocked on the apartment door at 4.55am on 29 July after neighbours complained of noise coming from Parson’s apartment.

“When we knocked, the accused came to the door and told us that he just had an argument with his grandmother,” adding that when they saw the extent of the incident, they immediately arrested Zammit and called for an ambulance to take the frail woman to hospital.

Investigations revealed how Zammit had returned home drunk, knocked on his grandmother’s door and punched her to the ground as soon as she opened.

Under arrest, Zammit admitted that he drank “at least a bottle and a half of vodka”.

The grandmother had warned Zammit not to drink when he went out the previous night, and stayed up to wait for his safe return.

Zammit – who was thrown out of his parent’s house because of his drinking problem – stared throughout the proceedings.

Emanuela Parsons suffered black eyes, three stitches inside her nose and bruises all over her body, besides injuries to her scalp where her hair was torn out.

Zammit remains in custody at Corradino Prisons.