Victim does not remember bouncers beating him up

Five Paceville bouncers were yesterday charged in court with slightly injuring a Chilean student during a fight last Thursday, despite the victim not remembering anything.

During a four-hour sitting yesterday afternoon, lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, representing four of the accused, alleged the police did not follow the proper procedure in having the witnesses identify the accused.

The bouncers – Christopher Caruana, 29, from St Julian’s, Luciano Galea, 39, from Valletta, Anthony Portelli, 39, from St Paul’s Bay, Stephen Fenech, 40, from Fgura and Emanuel Bonello, 46, from Attard – are pleading not guilty to slightly injuring Bastian Vasquez.

They are also pleading not guilty to breaching the public peace and operating without licences.

Police Inspector Trevor Micallef said he had handed over the investigation to a sergeant, which was normal practice, and the witnesses were shown an “album” of all bouncers in Paceville from which the five were identified.

He could not go into much detail since most of the evidence was investigated by the sergeant but confirmed that from CCTV footage of the fight none of the accused could be positively identified.

Taking the witness stand, Mr Vasquez said all he could remember was walking through Paceville, the sound of screaming and the sound of an ambulance.

From the testimony of his sister Francisca and his friends, Diego Santos, his sister Sophia and Marina Parau, it emerged that the fight began when the group saw two women savagely fighting outside a nightclub.

Sophie Santos began recording the incident on her mobile phone, to which one of the women took offence. A bouncer then intervened to take the phone and Mr Vasquez protested.

The bouncers are claiming that the only reason they intervened was because one of the women fighting had her genitals exposed in the fight.

During cross-examination, Dr Azzopardi suggested that the police did not follow procedure when showing the witnesses photos of the accused.

He pointed out that the photos were shown to all the witnesses at once and neither were the photos signed by the witnesses, as was standard procedure.

Testifying, the victim’s sister, Francisca, said about six bouncers were beating her brother on the floor and when she tried to stop them someone sprayed pepper spray into her eyes and mouth. She could not breathe or see.

When the effect wore off, she saw her brother lying in a pool of blood before an ambulance came to take him away.

She then identified two of the accused, Mr Portelli and Mr Caruana, as the ones involved in the fight but then admitted to not recognising them in the photo album.

Dr Azzopardi asked why she only recognised them now and Ms Vasquez said she recalled their body shape, adding a little later that she also recognised their faces.

She then said that she chose them because they stood out and when asked to elaborate she said they were bigger and taller than the rest of the men, who shared a similar stature.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella granted the men bail against a personal guarantee of €500 each.