Two young children saw their father being stabbed nine times by their grandmother and uncle outside his Cospicua home last week, a court heard yesterday.

The children, aged two-and-a-half and 15 months, witnessed the bloodshed in the vicious attack which their father, Alan Grech, was unlikely to recover fully from.

Taking the witness stand, Mr Grech said his mother, Nikolina Portelli, 45, and his brother Larson Grech, 22, both of Cospicua, had a penknife each and stabbed him multiple times.

The accused stand charged with seriously injuring and assaulting Mr Tabone while Ms Portelli stands charged with relapsing. Both deny the charges.

On the verge of breaking down in tears, Mr Grech said he was stabbed in his genitals and according to his doctors he was unlikely to fully recover.

He said the fight kicked off at around 10.30pm on August 19 outside his home in Matty Grima Street, situated opposite the home belonging to his partner’s father, Carmelo Tabone.

The accused arrived outside the house in a car and began shouting for Mr Grech to go outside and confront them over disparaging remarks allegedly made by Mr Tabone about the Grech brothers’ father, who is in prison.

At one point, Mr Grech said he went to split up the argument between Mr Tabone and his brother Larson when the latter turned on him and began hitting him with the knife. His mother joined in too and he fell to the ground, covered in blood.

Testifying, Mr Grech’s partner, Mariwen Tabone, said that on the night in question she was about to put the children to bed when the accused turned up and began shouting for her boyfriend to go downstairs.

He did so, carrying their youngest child and she followed shortly afterwards. Just as all hell broke loose she took the child from Mr Grech’s arms and could remember seeing the accused stab her partner.

Some four or five neighbours arrived to try to separate the fighting before they suddenly stopped and left, she said.

“They were like chickens – one minute you see them, the next they were gone,” Ms Tabone added.

Appearing for the accused, lawyer Cedric Mifsud requested bail but the request will be dealt with at a later date after lawyer Abigail Bugeja, appearing for the victims, strongly objected.