A man was conditionally discharged on Sunday after admitting to threatening and insulting his former girlfriend.

The accused, a 34-year-old Bulgarian national living in St Julian’s, was accused of threatening and insulting his former partner after she filed a police report about him.

Prosecuting Inspector Sherona Buhagiar said that while the woman had presented a recording of the threats, the same recording also showed the woman herself threatening and insulting the accused.

The court was also presented with a risk assessment report in which the woman was found to be in “extreme danger”.

Defense lawyer Jose Herrera appealed to the court to consider a conditional discharge, as the offense was relatively minor and considered a contravention and not a crime.

However, although the prosecution agreed it would be content with a conditional discharge, Magistrate Victor Axiaq questioned whether this would be appropriate given the outcome of the risk assessment.

Buhagiar said that while that may be so, the police investigation only received a summary of the assessment which does not include questions and answers provided by the victim.

In this case, the investigation had come to a different conclusion.

When asked to explain the discrepancy between the police investigation and the risk assessment’s conclusions, Buhagiar said it was how the Police Commissioner has instructed cases to move forward.

At that point defense lawyer Franco Debono interjected and approached the bench to discuss the case in private.

The case continued shortly after and the man was conditionally discharged following an admission of guilt. A protection order was also granted in favour of the victim.