Man wrapped charger cable around pregnant 17-year-old girlfriend's neck, court told

The incident is understood to have taken place during an argument over a T-shirt

A 22-year-old man was accused of attacking and causing bodily harm to his pregnant girlfriend, slightly injuring her, as well as threatening her
A 22-year-old man was accused of attacking and causing bodily harm to his pregnant girlfriend, slightly injuring her, as well as threatening her

A man has been charged with attacking and injuring his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend, in what is thought to be an argument over a T-shirt.

Inspector Eman Hayman arraigned 22-year-old Kurt Muscat from St. Julians in court before magistrate Astrid May Grima, accusing him of attacking and causing bodily harm to his pregnant girlfriend, slightly injuring her, as well as threatening her.

The 14 June incident is understood to have taken place during an argument over a T-shirt.

He had been arrested after the police received a report that the accused had put his hands around the expectant mother’s neck. 

His lawyer, Franco Debono said that Muscat had been arrested after voluntarily going to the police station to check on an unrelated matter. Upon his arrest, he had insisted that the marks on the neck of the alleged victim were self-inflicted. 

The victim claimed that the man had visited her in hospital to continue the argument.

Muscat had explained to investigators that the woman had made the marks found on her neck, herself with a mobile phone charger cable. He had instructed his sister to call the police.

Debono told the court that there was a “strong contestation” of the facts and argued for the man to be released on bail, pointing to the man’s “genuineness” and the fact that he didn’t reside with the alleged victim.

Inspector Hayman submitted that there were conflicting versions of events, and that the police had carried out a lengthy exercise of comparison of these versions, which essentially boiled down to whether the incident was one of self-harm or a beating. The police arrived at the conclusion that the victim’s version made more sense, he said, not least because the argument had later continued in another place.

Debono argued that at this stage the court is not establishing guilt, but whether the accused could be expected to observe bail conditions, adding that much of the evidence appeared to have already been gathered.

The court upheld Muscat’s bail request, against a deposit of €1,000 and a personal guarantee of €10,000 also ordering him to observe a curfew and imposing a protection order in favour of the 17-year-old.

The court imposed a ban on the publication of the name of the victim.