A man who injured his partner during an altercation at their Marsascala home walked out of court a free man on Sunday after the woman forgave him for the incident. 

Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia heard police inspector Audrey Micallef explain how the woman sustained a broken hand when the man kicked open the front door during an argument. The woman was behind the door at the time. 

The case happened in the afternoon of July 19. The man had been facing a potential maximum penalty of nine years in jail as he was also accused of breach of bail over an unrelated incident.

The woman testified before the court on Sunday, explaining that this was the very first time something like this had happened and she did not want the case to proceed.

The man is the father of her two children. 

After asking her a series of questions to ensure that she was renouncing court action out of her own free will and that she had not been promised anything in return, the court accepted her request and declared the case as "procedurally extinguished".

Lawyer Lennox Vella represented the woman as parte civile while lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.