Two guilty of taking part in violent bar brawl
A 24-year-old man and a 17-year-old were found guilty of taking part in a violent brawl during which a woman was grabbed by the neck and had her arm sliced open.
The fight started at Relations Bar in Marsascala on September 21, 2003, at about midnight.
Simone Collins testified that she had felt a sharp pain in her left arm and shortly after Roderick Spiteri, 24, grabbed her by the neck and dragged her along the floor.
Mr Spiteri testified that he carried a knife with him attached to a key-chain. During the fight he had used it against Ms Collins' boyfriend after he had started hitting him with a bar stool.
When asked whether he had hit Ms Collins with his knife, he said his friends had told him he had but otherwise he knew nothing.
Medical doctor Dino Vella Briffa testified that Ms Collins had her arm cut by a knife, the wound being five centimetres long.
However, it was a superficial wound. There was also a one-centimetre long wound on her finger.
Magistrate Lawrence Quintano said that from the evidence produced there was no doubt that Mr Spiteri had used a knife during the fight but the injuries were light.
Mr Spiteri, had also been charged with holding Ms Collins against her will when he grabbed her by the neck. However, the court could not find him guilty of this because the police should have charged him under another law that did not include the offence of holding her against her will.
The court found Mr Spiteri guilty of using the knife and slightly injuring Ms Collins, her boyfriend and another man in the fight. He was handed down a five-month jail term suspended for two years and fined him €58.
The teenager was found guilty of slightly injuring the woman's boyfriend and was fined €180.
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lgalea
Apr 25th 2009, 09:38
philip pace
Must have been an Alfred Hitchcock film philip.
philip pace
Apr 25th 2009, 00:23
I am trying to imagine a knife attached to a key chain! Must be a very awesome keychain and very 'comfortable' to carry around.
Now, was it a knife or a pen-knife?
Arm sliced open? Wow! And the wound was just five centimetres long!
I don't know!
Jeremy J Camilleri
Apr 24th 2009, 13:48
Joe Borg, the way this was reported obviously means that the ages mentioned meant at the time the crime was committed.
Of course, if I am wrong, than that means that the owner of the bar in question should also have been prosecuted for allowing an 11 yr old into a bar.
Ps. 11/12 is not a teenager, but a child.
Joe Cassar
Apr 24th 2009, 12:44
@ MrJoe Borg
I think it is highly probable that the ages referred to were those at the time the offense was committed.
The article should have specified this detail.
Joe Borg
Apr 24th 2009, 11:28
The court would have taken into account that the case took place some 6 years ago, and if the facts are quoted correctly, it would seem that the teenager was only 11/12 years of age at the time, whilst the other person would have been 18/19 years of age.
If it is a 1 time thing, and if it is shown that they reacted to violence which they suffered, i truly believe that the sentence awarded is just. Let's remember that being fair or not, our 'prison' is a corrective facility, hence in my judgement i believe that persons who would have no use going there, need not be sent there. Let us keep in mind that a suspensive sentence is there in order to be a remedy, whereby if the accused show that he does in fact have an inclination to 'fights' and the sort, he will have this sentence put into action.
Jeremy J Camilleri
Apr 24th 2009, 09:38
And then a foreigner who gets caught smoking cannabis risks 6 months in jail.
Lovely Malta!