A fight over a mobile phone and €50 in cash led to a hairdresser being savagely beaten and left to die in a Paceville road, a court heard yesterday.
He told Mr Cini he had given Mr Galea the good hiding ‘he deserved’ and he had blood on his shoes
The 47-year-old victim, Mario Galea, was repeatedly kicked in the head, punched and even dragged by his long hair after falling to his knees in the moments before collapsing unconscious, Police Inspector Keith Arnaud testified.
Minutes later he was run over by a taxi and died from asphyxia, an autopsy revealed last week.
The inspector gave a detailed account of investigations during the compilation of evidence against two 28-year-old men, Joe Zahra and Brian Cini, who are both pleading not guilty to murder.
Witnesses said Mr Zahra was the one who pummelled Mr Galea repeatedly, while they testified that Mr Cini was involved in the initial stages of the argument. Mr Cini was later seen driving a green Peugeot with the other accused, the inspector said.
One witness recalled someone shouting at Mr Galea: “Take that €50 out of your pocket, take it out!”
This testimony was corroborated by footage from four CCTV cameras, according to the prosecution, which helped identify Mr Zahra from his white Nike running shoes and T-shirt.
The inspector went through the statement released by Mr Cini and later highlighted contradictions between the versions given by the two men.
Mr Cini said he had met the victim for the first time on the night of the incident, when he and Mr Zahra encountered Mr Galea on their way to St George’s Bay.
He said Mr Galea was visibly drunk and an argument broke out between the victim and Mr Zahra. The dispute, according to Mr Cini’s statement, was over money which Mr Zahra had given to the victim for a job which, he claimed, was never carried out.
According to him, the argument escalated outside a Maxim’s Pastizzeria opposite a public garden in St Julian’s, when the victim tried to hit Mr Zahra and Mr Cini punched him.
Mr Cini got back into his car but the other two carried on fighting until Mr Zahra got back into the car. He told Mr Cini he had given Mr Galea the good hiding “he deserved” and he had blood on his shoes.
Mr Zahra’s statement was very different. He said he had met the victim earlier that night in Paceville and loaned him his mobile phone.
At one point, the victim disappeared with the phone and Mr Zahra asked Mr Cini if they could drive around Paceville to look for him. Eventually they spotted him.
However, Mr Zahra could not recall the victim falling to the ground unconscious or even hitting the victim, despite being faced with CCTV footage which showed otherwise, the inspector said.
During cross examination by lawyers Giannella de Marco and Joseph Giglio, the inspector confirmed that CCTV footage corroborated what Mr Cini had told them and that witnesses had seen Mr Zahra beating the victim.
Lawyers Franco Galea and Noella Sciriha appeared for Mr Zahra while lawyer Martin Fenech appeared for the victim’s family.