Five Paceville bouncers were cleared of slightly injuring a Chilean student as the evidence produced by the prosecution “clearly failed” to prove their involvement.

The case goes back to January 31 when Bastian Vasquez was in Paceville with his sister, Francisca, and his friends, Diego Santos, his sister Sophia and Marina Parau.

From evidence given by the visitors it emerged that incident started when they saw two women engaged in a fierce fight outside a nightclub. Sophie Santos said she began video recording the incident on her mobile phone, to which one of the women took offence. A bouncer intervened to take the phone away and Mr Vasquez protested.

A fight erupted between the groups but all Mr Vasquez could recall was screaming and the sound of an ambulance siren.

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, all denied involvement.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella said the police clearly failed to prove the charges, having based their case on CCTV footage, which featured the accused.

The bouncers also denied operating without licences but Mr Fenech and Mr Caruana were found guilty of this and fined €500.

The magistrate cast doubt on the testimony of the witnesses and that of Ms Parau who said that she could identify two of the accused when she went to court to testify.

The magistrate pointed out that the witness was unable to identify the accused just hours after the incident when she was shown photographs and also admitted to have been more worried about one of her friends than the victim at the time of the incident.