Man pleads guilty to harassing, injuring a woman and her boyfriend

A man who became besotted with a cashier has pleaded guilty to harassing the woman, and injuring her and her boyfriend.

Inspector Warren Galea charged 37-year-old Osas Omoregbe, a Nigerian man holding an Italian identity document without a fixed address in Malta, with slightly injuring a man and a woman and breaching the peace during the evening of April 25 at St Paul’s Bay. He was also charged with having harassed the woman in person.

Omoregbe is understood to have taken a fancy to a woman who had served him while she was working at a shop in St. Paul’s Bay and, noting the phone number listed on the shopfront had proceeded to phone and visit the shop repeatedly to speak to her.

On the day of the incident, the woman’s boyfriend had accompanied the woman to work after she had complained of the harassment. When Omoregbe went to the shop, a fight broke out in which both the woman and her boyfriend were slightly injured.

Arraigned before Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit today, Omoregbe pleaded guilty to the charges.

He was handed a one-year prison sentence, which was suspended for two years, together with a three-year restraining order. The court warned him that breaching the restraining order could result in a large fine, imprisonment or both fine and imprisonment.

The court also noted that the police had declared that the accused would be returned to Italy after being sentenced.