An argument between a couple triggered a fight between two women which escalated when one of them hit the other with a glass bottle, a court heard on Tuesday.

The incident began on Saturday inside an apartment block at Tarxien, where 36-year-old Tiziana Attard lived, when a heated argument broke out. 

When a neighbour intervened, the situation descended into a full-scale fight between the two women and ended with Attard’s neighbour filing a police report, claiming that she was hit with a glass bottle. 

The suspected aggressor was tracked down by police when she turned up at the police station to sign a bail book in connection with separate charges. 

Since it was rather late in the day, she was taken into custody.

She was later interrogated but opted for her right to silence, explained prosecuting Inspector Paul Camilleri.

Recently, the woman had missed out on signing the bail book and had also failed to turn up for a hearing in separate proceedings.It was only later that a medical certificate had been presented to explain her non-attendance.

That was why the police had arraigned the woman under arrest over the latest incident, explained the prosecutor. 

The woman was on Tuesday charged with assaulting her neighbour, causing her slight injuries, as well as allegedly breaching two sets of bail conditions. 

She pleaded not guilty “because she’s truly not guilty,” said her lawyer, Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

In fact, it appeared that the accused had fared worse in the fight. She entered the courtroom with a bandaged foot and remained seated throughout most of the hearing. 

“She was evidently provoked,” said the defence, adding that the nature of the charges merited the granting of bail.

However, the prosecution objected since the accused and her alleged victim lived in the same block.

Moreover, she had failed to abide by previous bail conditions and ought not have fallen for the alleged provocation. 

The woman had been granted bail in separate proceedings so as to follow a rehabilitation programme, but she “then chose to quit.” 

The accused had temperamental and anger problems, said Camilleri, prompting the defence lawyer to rebut that “according to surveys, half of the population in Malta is angry.”

The court, presided over by magistrate Josette Demicoli, ultimately turned down the request since the accused was not deemed to be sufficiently trustworthy, especially in abiding by bail conditions.