Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said today that she felt persistently harassed as a result of the contributions made by Daphne Caruana Caruana in her blog.

Giving evidence in court in the case instituted by the police against Ms Caruana Galizia, Magistrate Herrera said the case was even affecting her children and she recently found out that her fifth-form daughter was the only one in class who did not have a photo with her mother on facebook.

Her daughter kept asking her when she could upload pictures, and she replied that she could not. She had also asked her children to remove any facebook pictures in which she was also featured.

Dr Herrera exhibited two decrees where she abstained from cases in court. The cases were Martin Degiorgio vs Daphne Caruana Galizia, and Caruana Galizia vs Kurt Farrugia, then editor of Maltastar. Mag Herrera said she had taken the decisions on her own and the Chief Justice never spoke to her about them.

The magistrate said that after her testimony at the last sitting, Assistant Commissioner Cassar had contacted her to say he was not present at the dinner she had had mentioned. The magistrate said the dinner was not important but she was still under the impression that it was Mr Cassar who was present.

The case continues in May when Ms Caruana Galizia will testify.