A 24-year-old man and a 17-year-old were found guilty of taking part in a violent brawl during which a woman was grabbed by the neck and had her arm sliced open.

The fight started at Relations Bar in Marsascala on September 21, 2003, at about midnight.

Simone Collins testified that she had felt a sharp pain in her left arm and shortly after Roderick Spiteri, 24, grabbed her by the neck and dragged her along the floor.

Mr Spiteri testified that he carried a knife with him attached to a key-chain. During the fight he had used it against Ms Collins' boyfriend after he had started hitting him with a bar stool.

When asked whether he had hit Ms Collins with his knife, he said his friends had told him he had but otherwise he knew nothing.

Medical doctor Dino Vella Briffa testified that Ms Collins had her arm cut by a knife, the wound being five centimetres long.

However, it was a superficial wound. There was also a one-centimetre long wound on her finger.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano said that from the evidence produced there was no doubt that Mr Spiteri had used a knife during the fight but the injuries were light.

Mr Spiteri, had also been charged with holding Ms Collins against her will when he grabbed her by the neck. However, the court could not find him guilty of this because the police should have charged him under another law that did not include the offence of holding her against her will.

The court found Mr Spiteri guilty of using the knife and slightly injuring Ms Collins, her boyfriend and another man in the fight. He was handed down a five-month jail term suspended for two years and fined him €58.

The teenager was found guilty of slightly injuring the woman's boyfriend and was fined €180.