A father walked out of court on Thursday after his son radically changed his version of violent assault charges.

Stephen Calleja, a 41-year old construction worker from Siggiewi, stood charged with having, without any intent to kill, inflicted grievous injuries upon his 20-year old son in an incident at the family home in January 2016.

When the man allegedly entered his son’s room to wake him up, the young man suffered a blow to the head, which resulted in a fractured cranium and a scar "visible from within talking distance".

In the course of criminal proceedings against the father, the court heard the testimony of the doctor who had examined the young man when he turned up at the Qormi Health Centre accompanied by his mother, the accused’s wife.

After treating the patient's head wound, the doctor referred the young man to Mater Dei where a CT scan confirmed there was bleeding under his fractured cranium, which required surgery.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, observed that the alleged victim had told doctors at the health centre and also at hospital that his father had hit him on the head with a glass TV stand when he refused to get out of bed.

However, when questioned by police, the young man radically altered his version, stating he had rushed out of bed, banging his head against the glass stand.

In a police statement released shortly after the incident, the father had explained how his son had rushed out of bed and tripped over his foot. However, he insisted that he had never “intended to hurt his son”.

Following the incident, the father had left for work, allegedly unaware of the victim’s injuries, only to be called later by his wife who informed him that their son required surgery.

Both the wife and son chose not to testify in the proceedings, the court observed, pointing out that that the two had been exempted from doing so by another magistrate formerly presiding over the case.

In light of the fact that the victim had altered his version and since there had been no eye witness to tell what had truly happened that morning of the incident, the court cleared the accused, pointing out that if the son’s original version had been true, this would have amounted to a "classic case of domestic violence".