Husband breaks wife's nose

The fact that she was being unfaithful makes no difference. The severity of the act is down to how one may see it. Some aren't phased by it, they talk it out, forgive or leave and get on with their lives.. and others see not enough salt in the pasta as a good enough reason to smack wifey around a little.

The fact that she is his wife does not make him her owner. You can't break your wife's nose, no matter what it is she does.

Can you break your neighbour's nose for scratching your car? No.
You can't even shout at him because you'll be 'disturbing the peace'.

But when it comes to spouses, the rules of the game seem to change for some people. And our law courts should be there to send the message that NO physical violence will be tolerated by either spouse, no matter what.

does infedility justify domestic violence in any way....@ charlo lautier....i am very dissapointed to note that are many men who applaud to this on this island!!!!!!!!

I read all the comments below and most of them have very valid points. However one must think what would have happened if the husband broke the nose of the other guy. Or perhaps even killed him in the act. Now that would be called a crime of passion no? I think that the judge was right in his judgment considering that the husbund acted in the spur of the moment. What i do not agree with is the fact that the law has no jurisdiction over the third party who in this case caused the rift in the first place. He is the 'culprit' in the breaking of that family, and he should bear part of the blame for starting the quarell between the two married couple. Well he was found in the other man's property (and my home is my casle) and he was found in the other man's Bed with his wife. I think that the law should be ammended and adultry should be considered as a crime. Yea I know many arguments will arise from this statement but since contracts should not be broken by law than so should matrimonial agreements.

Mr C Zammit.

Don't be naive, her actions have everything to do with this case; if he had attacked her without provocation then yes the man would deserve a lengthy jail sentence. This is not the case however, she cheated on him - if there is very good reason why she should (e.g. he's abusive) then this compounds to that previous problem and again he is at fault.

However with this limited information, she cheated on him and in a (predictable) loss of self control, he struck her. Its not something to be proud of, but its understandable.

Whilst the action the husband made is condemnable, i can fully sympathise with him. Finding your wife in bed with someone else is truly traumatising! And you just say "He should have just left her!" - imbad iggiba li hu telaq mid-dar u halliha! u minn fuq, tkun trid nofs ta kollox!! Imbad tkun xi wahda li qatt ma hadmet ... dejjem id-dar ... oh come on!

@czammit...agreed no violence whatsoever, however that should be applied to all, cos it is a well known fact that women exert violence on physically weaker beings then themselves too....and its all legal at least in most of the world.

When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.

I am speechless at most of these comments.

The issue is NOT the wife's adultery – this is a case of domestic violence, a man hitting and seriously injuring his wife. WHATEVER the provocation (and extenuating circumstances), a husband has NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to hit his wife, and to harm her physically. If we condone this behaviour, what will stop us from condoning even more violent behaviour (we all know of cases when a husband, suitably provoked, hit his wife and she ended up dead). Violence, domestic or otherwise, should be punished, and not by a meaningless suspended sentence, but by a prison sentence.

By this, I do not mean to say that I condone the wife's behaviour. However, that is a separate issue. If a husband, understandably, feels upset and traumatised at finding his wife with another man, he has the option to leave her, but NOT to hit her. This, of course, applies to women as well. However, it is much more common to hear of men hitting their wives than vice versa.

@ R Bartolo.

I thought the man in question was unemployed....

Understanding the mentality of some people is way beyond me!! The wrongdoing here is that a husband HIT his wife!! If she was being unfaithful he should have taken the appropriate steps and left her. There is no excuse for both actions... if the wife was being unfaithful because, as some readers argue, the husband was neglecting her, she should have taken the step to leave him and if the husband discovered his wife's infidelity he should have taken the step to leave her.. full stop!! We are supposed to be a civilised country with civilised people living in it and riverting to violence is NEVER the answer, no matter what side it is coming from. When are we going to put it into our minds that NO person has the right to hit another at any time and for whatever reason?!!

@ Clint Cassar

Obviously not. Just look at Tiger Woods...

Remember, in our society it is only domestic violence if the man does it. Otherwise it is just an argument.

All people are equal.. but some are more equal than others.

@M . Magri.

Thanks for blaming the man without knowing ANYTHING about the situation. Yeah... let's blame him for her cheating on him, especially if he was working late, while she was at home, enjoying herself. How horrible of him!

Just one question.

If the husband cheated on the wife and he got his nose broken, would she get any sentence at all?

I bet the women commenting on this article would be up in arms over all men's infidelity in this case.

I'm sorry but our laws are SEVERELY outdated.

Are we equal or not?

Where was the husband before this confrontation took place at 9pm? Was he out looking for work, or was he maybe having a drink or two at the local pub or bar? it seems to me that if the woman had another man in the apartment she was presumably not expecting the husband in at that particular time, because he usually stayed out late! And is this why she was finding solace in someone else's arms, because her husband was never home? Just something to think about .......

@ C. Farrugia

I distance myself from the prostitution comments and cannot understand why I was dragged into that argument. However YES from the information we have here, on which I can base my opinion and argument, and from a similar case on which I have more information and happen to know those involved YES once again the man is the victim.

I agree that men can also have extra matrimonial relationship, and that also more women suffer domestic violence then men and this completely unacceptable in a civilised society.

If we get the same story and simply change sexes of those involved I would had commented completely the same simply changing sexes.

It is not acceptable that who creates the situation remain free and even given the opportunity to continue with the realtionship at the residence of the couple since as we read "Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna took into consideration that the man will be living with his mother in Xgħajra before handing down a two year jail term suspended for four years."

Come on.

" took into consideration that the man will be living with his mother in Xgħajra "

Perhaps the Judge thought that that was punishment enough :-)

It's the other guy that should have had the punch on the nose, not the wife.

DBorg and Roderick Micallef
shame on you for depicting the man as the victim and worrying about his "kondotta" more than the injuries the woman suffered. you turn things as it pleases you. Moreoever Roderick, your comment about prostitution of the wife is disgusting, if a woman catches her husband sleeping with this and that woman, she would not think he should go and work as a prostitute for her. you are objectifying women and being respectless in that comment. where is your respect for women? men tend to cheat on their partners much MORE than women do, but if a woman does it hell breaks out.

Kemm inkunu pronti nghaddu gudizzju u nivvintaw stejjer shah! Ic-cirkostanzi tal-kaz ma nafuhomx u mhux affari taghna lanqas. Dejjem niskanta meta xi bicca sfortuna ta' haddiehor noqghodu nikkummentaw fil-vojt fuqa, filwaqt li xi bicca ingustizzja jew ommissjoni tal-awtoritajiet mhux dejjem natu kaza - ghadna nahsbu li ghandna sidna fuqna u ma nistghu naghmlu xejn dwar hajjitna ghajr inseksku fuq haddiehor.

I do not agree with the wife being stoned or harmed in any way but she should not walk away scotch free, she has to take responsibiity for the circumstances. I do not know what I will be capable of doing if put to test after all the sacrifices one go through to build a decent living family these days.

Now this will make things more difficult for this young unemployed man to find a job.

What about other effects so if in a similar case there are chidren involved the natural father has his police conduct marked and could easily end up in prison for a minor offence while the lover of his wife, and his wife enjoy la bella vita with the kids.

Our sympathy with this man and those suffering similar injustice.

If only jealousy was left to the side for a while there would have been a lucrative business opportunity here, I would have sent all the men the wife wanted so she would have got all the pleasures she wanted and on the other hand her husband could have collected let's say 70% of all the 'donations' at the door and could have made quite a decent profit.
Like that, the husband would have had some pocket money since he is unemployed and his beloved wife would have been happy and satisfied, a win win situation, no violence, no arguments and especially no suspended jail terms. But jealousy is a killer, unfortunately when some one is consumed with jealousy he/she is not able to think rationally and this is what you get, actually it could have been much worst then this I remember a similar case where the husband stabbed his wife several times and subsequently killed her because of a story like this.

Sorry to hear this, but sorry is it good that you love a person, and she go with other man?? Please where is the humanity in this thing?? Imagine you love a person and she go with other person and you catch her in fact..... what are the things in your mind that time??? and if you punch her for what she did you go to court??? please grow up.....

@ Mario Busettil.

Presumably that comment was a joke ?

@anthea... violence is never excusable, however the sex you belomg to by no means always the innocent party. And the wife it seems is accustommed to look over her shoulder considering her extra marital activities.

It's a shame that in this case the man had to be justiced,along in some other countires if a woman was caught in adulterium it will be stoned by her own husbund and he is free to to that.....and here the woman is free of charge .....UGWALJANZA>>>>

Suspended sentence. What a joke.

Even 4 months in prison is better than a 2 year suspended sentence.

Deserved worse than that.

The court were asked to hand down a sentence that reflected the severity of the crime?! Suspended sentence - are you serious? The wife has been placed under a protection order so he must be deemed an ongoing danger to her. If I were the wife I would be going to the highest authority to appeal this sentence as too lenient. But of course, as I have said before, there is a culture existing in Malta that wives belong to their husbands as if a possession for life. Disgraceful attitude and disgraceful sentence - well it is not a sentence is it! No doubt the wife will be constantly looking over her shoulder and on tenterhooks at the slightest noise at home or in the middle of the night. What will it take before the appropriate action is taken in cases like this? Do not forget the story not many weeks ago where an estranged husband stabbed his wife to death in the street, poor woman. Men like this do not change.............

An exemplary sentence.

Proset x gustizzja dik!
Naqbad lil marti gas-sodda ma haddiehor u immurr nghidlha grazzi u proset!!