Two men were conditionally discharged for their involvement in a fight in Cospicua in 2011 during which a man suffered serious injuries to his face with a beer bottle. 

Magistrate Doreen Clarke ruled that although Oscar Calafato, 40, and Noel Aquilina, 41, both of Cospicua, had been provoked by the victim, their claim that they were acting in self-defence did not stand. 

The fight took place on May 7 at the Cospicua band club. Marco Mamo suffered facial injuries that caused permanent scarring. 

The court heard how Mr Mamo intervened when he saw the two men arguing with a woman, who was Mr Calafato's sister, Ritienne Bugeja. Mr Mamo was attacked and thrown to the ground and was struck with an aluminium bar. The fight dispersed when the police arrived at the bar.

However, after the police had taken their details and sent the men their own ways, a second episode broke out once the police officers arrived back at the police station. 

During this second part of the fight, Mr Mamo was struck in the face by a beer bottle. While witnesses who testified in court said they remembered seeing a bottle, it could not be established who was holding the bottle before they saw Mr Mamo covered in blood. 

In court, the defence argued that the two were acting in self-defence. However, Magistrate Clarke noted that for this defence to hold water, the person pleading it must prove that he had acted to avoid a danger that could not have been avoided in any other way. 

In this case, she said, the injuries could have easily been avoided had the men not gone out of the club to confront the victim. 

As a result, the court held that although legitimate self-defence could stand as a defence, no one could deny that there was an element of provocation from Mr Mamo's part.

Taking this element of provocation into account, Magistrate Clarke conditionally discharged Mr Calafato for a year and conditionally discharged Mr Aquilina for two years after the court noted that he had breached the conditions of a previous release. She also considered that Mr Mamo had since forgiven the two men.