Youth beats up mother for failing to make him dinner, court told

A 23-year-old man who is alleged to have brutally beaten his mother for failing to make him dinner has been charged and remanded in custody.

Inspector Roderick Attard arraigned the man, who is not being named to protect the identity of the injured party, this morning before magistrate Doreen Clarke.

He was charged with slightly injuring his mother and with causing her to fear she would be subjected to violence in the preceding months. He was also charged with relapsing.

Defence lawyer Martha Mifsud entered a not guilty plea and requested bail, arguing that release from arrest is the norm, not the exception. It was a banal argument that got out of hand, she said, adding that his previous convictions were for very minimal crimes.

She said her client did not want to lose his job over the incident.

But lawyer Stefanie Caruana, parte civile for the mother, told the court that the abuse had been ongoing for the past ten years. The man had beat his mother for not making him dinner, she said. “Police found her in a horrific state. She went to the polyclinic for treatment twice in one day.”

The court denied the man bail at this stage, owing to the gravity of the offence and the risk of him tampering with evidence.