Conditional discharge for woman who threw ashtray at stalker’s car

A court had handed a conditional discharge to a woman who threw an ashtray at her ex-lover’s car after he had allegedly spent months harassing and stalking her.

Inspector Carol Fabri had told Magistrate Josette Demicoli how 49-year old Birzebbugia resident, Maria Anna Camilleri, had been in a relationship with Charles Brincat, who is married to someone else, but decided to end it after 18 months.

The court heard how an upset Brincat had then started to harass the woman, sending her text messages. He would also repeatedly text Camilleri's mother and daughter. The woman had filed a police report claiming that Brincat had been shadowing her movements.

Camilleri told the court how, one September day in 2013, whilst smoking a cigarette in her balcony, she had seen Brincat driving his car on the street below and had thrown her ashtray at the vehicle, hitting it on the roof and causing a large dent. Brincat told the court that the fright caused him to swerve and scrape the side of his car along a boat trailer.

The court said it did not believe Brincat’s account of hitting the boat trailers, noting that he had not filed a report, as would be expected in such cases.

However in view of her admission, the court found Camilleri guilty of causing damage to the car, and conditionally discharged the woman for six months, rebuking her for taking the law into her own hands.

Lawyer Lucio Sciriha appeared for Camilleri.