A magistrate reluctantly allowed a man to walk free after the woman he beat and locked up, following a row over a deleted Facebook message, insisted on withdrawing the charges against her ex-partner.

Magistrate Lara Lanfranco half-heartedly accepted the victim’s request for proceedings to be stayed and the action against 24-year-old Tyler Camilleri to be dropped.

The magistrate pointed out that this was not something automatic and had to be decided by the court on a case-by-case basis since the court enjoyed discretion as to whether to order proceedings to be stopped or continued.

After giving a stern warning to the accused, she pointed out that she could continue hearing the case even in the absence of the victim’s testimony since she could eventually reach a guilty verdict based on other witnesses.

The magistrate half-heartedly accepted the victim’s request

In this case, she decided to accept the victim’s request but warned the accused this would not happen again if he faced similar charges in her court.

Defence counsel Franco Debono explained that this was an isolated incident and that the charges concerned a one-off episode and not a series of incidents.

Last September, an argument broke out between the couple when Camilleri wanted to know what was behind a Facebook message his partner had received but which was deleted by the sender. She tried to explain that the sender was a friend on Facebook and the message was harmless, the court heard.

But the argument escalated and she was allegedly beaten on her face and head, suffering slight injuries. She was then allegedly locked up for hours in the house she shared with her partner in Żejtun.

She was only rescued by her mother’s partner who climbed over a wall to gain access to the locked house.

Police inspector Audrey Micallef prosecuted. Lawyer Francesca Zarb was also defence counsel.