Cleared of serious injury charge

A St Julian's man has been cleared of seriously injuring his girlfriend after a magistrate ruled that her three versions of events were "totally inconsistent" and created reasonable doubt as to whether he had injured her.

André Zammit, 27, was acquitted of injuring Charmaine Sammut and breaching the peace in St Julian's on July 6, 2002, at about 11 p.m.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that although the defence and the prosecution agreed that Sammut suffered serious injuries, the matter lay in determining whether there was enough evidence to prove that Zammit had injured her.

The magistrate heard that Sammut filed a police report in which she said that Zammit punched her in the face for no apparent reason but when Sammut took the witness stand she said that Zammit hit her after he dragged her into his parked car from her hair.

But under cross-examination Sammut said that Zammit hit her while he was giving her a lift to her car.

Zammit insisted that although he had argued with Sammut he did not hit her and this, the magistrate noted, was corroborated by the testimony of Marco and Joanna Cutajar who said that they had seen the couple argue but did not see Zammit hit Sammut.