A woman has recalled in court how she was punched and pinned against the waist high railing of her rooftop veranda, pulled by the hair over an eight-storey drop by an elderly neighbour who charged at her “like a raging bull”.

“Were it not for my son, I would be dead today,” said the woman when she took the witness stand against Stephen Gauci, the 64-year-old pensioner who lived in her apartment block at St Julian’s where the incident took place in July.

The victim was playing Scrabble with a friend on that Saturday evening at around 11pm. 

The two women, who were close friends and shared a passion for the board game, were chatting casually on the private rooftop terrace of the victim when the door leading to the roof banged open. 

In a split second, Gauci, who at the time lived lower down in the block, came at her “like a raging bull”, recalled the petite woman. 

In a rage, the slight-statured man grabbed pieces of outdoor furniture and flung them at her as she sat close to the railing. 

He first threw chairs, then a sun-bed and finally rushed at her, pinning her against the railing, pulling her long strands of hair right out over the railing so that she was bent over half out onto the terrifyingly high drop below. 

And as he pulled with one hand, the man punched her with his right hand, hitting her on the face and chin. 

As the blows rained down upon her, the woman screamed out to her friend, “call the police, call the police”.

In those seemingly endless minutes, the other woman sprung into action, dialing the police and trying to pull the aggressor away from her friend. 

But he “just ignored” her efforts. 

“The anger on his face… I get shivers when I think about it. I don’t even want to look at his face,” the victim’s friend said when testifying about the scary episode during criminal proceedings against Gauci.

The man is pleading not guilty and was granted bail upon arraignment under strict condition of taking up residence with his brother in a different locality and not going to St Julian’s or to his former residence where both his victim and her son lived. 

“I’m trembling… It [the incident] has mentally disturbed me,” went on the victim’s friend. 

Luckily, within a few minutes, the victim’s son arrived at the scene, alerted to the trouble by his mother’s screams which reached his apartment, two floors down. 

That evening, he had been listening to music at his computer when the commotion broke out, recalled the tall, slim youth who also testified against his mother’s alleged aggressor.

He raced upstairs and stepped out onto the roof, just in time to see his mother being pulled and punched whilst pinned against the railing. 

He rushed at the neighbour, managed to pull him away from his mum and then pinned him down on the floor where he kept a firm hold over him until the police arrived. 

But in those few minutes of citizen’s arrest, Gauci kept up his aggressive stance, threatening the youth, even grabbing his private parts while attempting to break free of the younger man’s firm hold. 

“I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ll find you and come for you with my brother,” Gauci threatened, while his victim’s friend captured that part of the incident on her mobile phone. 

She did not start filming when the incident broke out because she had been trying to rescue her friend while calling the police, explained the woman when cross examined by the defence. 

The footage, that was aired in court, lasted several minutes. 

The son knelt over the accused who lay face up on the ground complaining that it was “three against one” as the younger man ordered him to lie still and to “put his hand down” against the background bangs of festa fireworks. 

Around the two, chairs and loungers lay scattered about.

Asked directly by presiding Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech whether the accused had uttered any words while allegedly assaulting her friend, the witness recalled that the man had “threatened to slit her [the victim’s] throat” and that he would “bring along his brother”.

“He was like a horse that bolted… It [the incident] gives me nightmares. Thinking about it, seeing my friend - who is like a sister to me - over the railing… it was like a horror movie,” explained the witness.

The victim herself explained further that trouble with the neighbour had long been ongoing, with a civil case filed in court over some dispute related to the airspace of the block which the woman insisted was her property. 

The two had also filed a number of police reports against each other. 

She ran the court briefly through a series of previous incidents wherein she had allegedly been insulted and threatened by Gauci, even while walking in the street in the presence of third parties. 

“But I never reacted to his taunts,” said the woman. 

“This is the story of my life. I am living in hell,” she concluded. 

Following those testimonies, the court decreed that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for the accused to stand trial on indictment. 

The court also appointed a digital forensic expert to extract stills from the footage exhibited in evidence. 

The case continues. 

Inspector Keith Xerri prosecuted.Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Kris Busietta and Adrian Camilleri are defence counsel.Lawyer Anna Cordina Zammit appeared parte civile.