Mintoff knife brawl: Gheorghe Popa, 39, has been living with Yana Mintoff, 65, since 2013

Yana Mintoff Bland’s Romanian lover, who is almost three decades her junior, has been named as Gheorghe Popa. He is receiving treatment at the state general hospital for “grievous” wounds he received in a brawl at Mrs Bland’s Tarxien home last night, in which Mrs Bland and her son, Danny Mainwaring, 32, suffered stab wounds which police sources described as “slight”.

Mr Mainwaring was at the same address with his girlfriend and a couple of other friends when the fight, which involved a knife, broke out between his mother and her lover. He intervened and was “slightly” wounded in the thigh. It is unclear what happened next, but Mrs Bland and Mr Mainwaring were driven to the Paola Health Centre by the other people present in the house. Mr Popa was then discovered by police up a tree and covered in blood, seriously wounded. The police sources did not say whether his wounds were self-inflicted or caused by third parties. A fire had been started in the house.

A source close to Mrs Bland has told this website that Mr Popa has been living with her and off her – Mrs Bland and her sister, the low-profile and highly reserved Anne McKenna, inherited millions in real estate and financial assets from their father, former prime minister Dom Mintoff – since 2013. This source described Mr Popa as “an uneducated, uncouth and uncivilised man who used to work in the docks in Romania, who has no table manners, doesn’t speak a word of English, has no interest in learning the language or anything else, and no respect for anything but his own advantage”.

The source went on to say: “Yana has lost many of her friends because of him, and because of this she has become isolated over the last three years. (Popa) sexually assaulted some of her women friends, but when they told her, she accused them of lying, which made some of them break off all contact with her, while others only saw her when he was not around.”

The same source told this website that Yana Mintoff Bland’s son, Danny Mainwaring – whose father is Mrs Bland’s first husband, Geoff Mainwaring – was “desperate about the whole thing” and saw his mother’s lover, who is also in his 30s, as her “social project”.

“Danny was worried about his mother and felt responsible for her,” the source said. “She acted as though nothing was amiss, but when people insisted on talking about these issues, she cut them off, because she was infatuated with Popa. But she wouldn’t admit to her infatuation, either.”

Yana Mintoff Bland, 65, and her Romanian lover of the last three years, Gheorghe Popa, 39.

Yana Mintoff, during the Labour Party’s general election campaign in 2013, when she stood as a candidate but failed to be elected.