Four Swedish flatmates who beat up a man and injured his girlfriend were yesterday berated by a magistrate and called “cowards” for “acting like animals”.

Magistrate Ian Farrugia made the comments as he sentenced them to suspended jail terms after seeing the extent of the injuries they inflicted on Hans Markstrom, 30, from Sliema. Mr Markstrom appeared in court with two black eyes, severe bruising on his face and nose and a swollen head.

Joel Cid Erik Fredholm, 22, who works for a Swedish call centre based in Malta, Christopher Sculc, 20, unemployed, Adde Hammarberg, 23, unemployed and Amir Saleh, 21, who works for an investment company in Malta, admitted to seriously injuring Mr Markstrom on Saturday. Two of his attackers remain at large.

The fight took place after Mr Markstrom’s girlfriend, Rebecca Nilsson, 20, demanded that one of the men produce his Swedish criminal record because she claimed he was not fit to work for the company they both worked for.

The men told the couple to go to their flat in Swieqi where they set upon Mr Markstrom and also injured Ms Nilsson.

Shortly after the men admitted to the charges, the magistrate told them: “You should be ashamed of yourselves. Most of you don’t work and you come to this country and think you can act like animals.

“You are cowards! You could have killed that man when considering his build when compared to yours.”

He sentenced them to two years in prison suspended for four years and ordered them not to communicate with the victims in any way against a personal guarantee of €2,000 each.

When the arraignment was over, Mr Markstrom and Ms Nilsson were charged with threatening the group and causing slight injury to one of the men but the case was dropped after they renounced criminal action against the couple.