Mother held in remand after allegedly assaulting foundation's staff

A mother whose children are being cared for by the Richmond Foundation under a care order after running away from home, was today remanded in custody after allegedly assaulting the foundation operations manager and the senior therapeutic social worker. The incident happened two days ago. Rose Marie Pace, 33, of St Paul's Bay, who is unemployed and has seven children, pleaded not guilty to seriously injuring operations manager Holger Saliba. He fell and suffered a concussion. The accused also denied assaulting Andrew Barberi and relapsing. Defence lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace said that this was a small incident which escalated. He requested bail, saying the court could impose a protection order. The prosecution objected to bail, noting that Mr Saliba is still in hospital. Furthermore, the children are terrified by what had happened. (It was not clear how many of her children are being cared for by the foundation) Magistrate Anthony Vella remanded the woman in custody but said that he was obliging the prosecution to present all the witnesses in the first sitting.