Woman's frying pan blow ruled self-defence in court

Although generally associated with cartoon adversaries Tom and Jerry, hitting an attacker with a frying pan turned out to be a potentially life-saving act for one woman who was being pummelled by her partner, a court has held.

This emerged in a judgement handed down yesterday by magistrate Claire Louise Stafrace Zammit, in which the court acquitted the woman of grievously injuring her ex-partner in a domestic incident at their Rabat home in October 2013.

The pair had already ended their relationship at that point, but the woman had taken pity on her Sicilian ex, with whom she has a child, and had allowed him to sleep on the living room sofa until he found alternative accommodation.

On the night of the incident, the woman's partner had gone upstairs to her bedroom where an argument, thought to have been caused by the man jealousy, ensued. Magistrate Stafrace Zammit noted that the woman's claim that the man had punched her repeatedly all over her body as she lay in bed before dragging her by her hair down the stairs, was borne out by medical evidence.

Once downstairs, the woman had retrieved a frying pan from the kitchen and hit her assailant in the face with it, causing him a serious facial injury in the process. The woman was then criminally charged with causing the injury, having exceeded the limits of legitimate self-defence and with insulting and threatening the man.

Internet searches show that after this incident, the man had received a conditional discharge in 2016 for grievously injuring a fellow prison inmate, whilst serving time for theft.

The court said the evidence left it in no doubt that the woman had acted in legitimate self-defence and declared her innocent of that charge. Noting that it had not been proven that the woman had insulted and threatened the man, the court also dismissed this charge.