A man who was allegedly surrounded by a group of men in a nightclub and beaten was yesterday charged with seriously injuring a bouncer in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Jonathan Portelli, 24, of Birżebbuġa was inside Shadow Lounge within Hugo’s nightclub in Paceville when he was involved in an argument and a group of men surrounded him and his girlfriend, defence lawyer Giannella Caruana Curran said yesterday. The group attacked them, she added.

It was clear from the CCTV footage that this took place and, furthermore, the injured bouncer was actually defending her client during the altercation when he was injured, she added.

Mr Portelli is pleading not guilty to seriously injuring Michael Zahra, slightly injuring another man, Sandro Dimech, trying to seriously injure Mr Dimech, carrying a knife without a licence and breaching the peace.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke granted him bail against a personal guarantee of €5,000 and a deposit of €500.

Police Inspector Trevor Micallef prosecuted.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.