Updated | Sliema pensioner requests alcohol rehab after knife attack on ex-partner

A Sliema pensioner has admitted to attacking his former partner and her son with a knife during a domestic row and injuring them.

65-year-old Joseph Debono was arraigned under arrest before magistrate Claire Micallef Stafrace. Police inspector Robert Vella charged the man with attempted grievous bodily harm, causing both woman and son to suffer slight injuries and insulting and threatening the woman and her son, amongst other charges.

Little in the way of detail about the incident or its possible causes were aired in open court today.

Sources say Debono had visited the home of his former partner after she had failed to return items of his and had held a knife at the woman's throat. He was alleged to have been drunk at the time.

Debono was also charged with harassing the two victims as well as offences relating to the possession of a knife during the commission of a crime against the person and misuse of electronic communications equipment.

Defence lawyers Paul Borg and Clint Tabone entered a guilty plea for the man, who is understood to have an alcohol problem.

The court, noting that the accused had expressed his willingness to submit to an alcohol rehabilitation programme, handed him a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years, together with a fine of €120 and placed under a three-year protection order which obliged him not to molest the woman or her son. The court also ordered the destruction of the weapon.