The first reaction of a pole dancer who witnessed a fatal fight in Paceville was to take the victim's picture with her mobile phone when he fell to the ground unconscious.
Ashley Conti, 18, admitted as much when she testified in court yesterday. The girl, who described herself as a pole dancer at Footloose, took a few photos and a video recording of what she thought was a dead immigrant lying on the pavement outside the nightclub on May 29.
The man from Sudan, Suleiman Abubaker, actually died of his injuries last Tuesday. His funeral was meant to be held yesterday but was postponed pending the arrival of his brother.
A bouncer at the club, Duncan Deguara, 29, was yesterday charged with causing a serious injury to Mr Abubaker, which injury was followed by death. When he appeared in court last Monday he was accused of serious injury.
Magistrate Lawrence Quintano yesterday demanded to have the girl's phone but she claimed she had lost it on the bus while on her way to the police station to be questioned.
The magistrate found this hard to believe and reminded her that she was under oath. He demanded the phone again and she replied: "What do you want me to do if I lost it?"
The court asked what had become of the photos and footage and she said she had deleted them immediately because they were not clear.
Magistrate Quintano then remarked: "It takes a long time to convince this court, I'm sorry".
The girl was then allowed to leave.
Police Inspector Martin Sammut testified that the accused had given a statement to the police saying that an argument had broken out after Mr Abubaker tried to enter the bar when he was drunk.
The bouncer told the police he stopped the victim but the man kept on trying. After some time, the victim left and Mr Deguara went to the toilet but, on returning to his post, he spotted Mr Abubaker drinking at the bar and so he escorted him to the door.
According to the statement, Mr Abubaker hit the bouncer with a bottle and Mr Deguara reacted by pushing him out of the door. He fell over and hit his head against the ground where he remained for a few minutes.
Chris Tanti and Kelvin Whitelaw, both club patrons at the club, said the bouncer pushed the immigrant.
When asked whether the victim was kicked while on the floor as two other witnesses had said, Mr Tanti, Mr Whitelaw and Ms Conti denied this had happened.
According to the autopsy results, Mr Abubaker died from a fractured skull and a lung contusion, which means there was a build-up of fluid in his chest compatible with chest trauma, the inspector said.
Inspector Sammut produced stills from CCTV cameras that captured the commotion. The footage was not clear enough to make out details such as the identity of the people involved and what exactly happened, he said.
At the beginning of the hearing, defence lawyer José Herrera raised a complaint with the court and said that because of a couple of blogs on the website of The Times and columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog, his client has been judged before anyone knew anything about the case.
The court said that, although he understood one's right to freedom of expression, according to the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights the accused was innocent until proven otherwise. The judicial process was still at the very beginning and he warned commentators to choose their words carefully and not to draw conclusions.