A security officer was cleared over his involvement in a fight inside a Paceville nightclub after the prosecution centred its case upon Facebook photos passed onto the police three months after the incident.

Srdan Stankovic, a Serbian national employed by a local security services company, had been at Bacco’s on the night of November 23, 2014 when a violent scuffle broke out between one patron, Shawn Zammit, and a number of bouncers.

The patron had been dancing with his wife in the presence of another couple when the man inadvertently hit a waiter, sparking off a verbal altercation which soon escalated into a physical fight involving some nine or 10 persons.

In the ensuing commotion, Mr Zammit ended up suffering a fractured cheek bone, numbed teeth and bruising, later certified as being of a grievous nature.

A police report was filed the next day while three months later, the alleged victim handed over five photos to the police, three of which showed his injuries while the others figured male persons who had allegedly been involved in the fight.

These photos led to the identification of the accused who was stopped at the Malta International Airport just as he was about to fly out to Serbia.

Criminal proceedings were instituted against the suspect for having inflicted grievous bodily harm without intent to place the life of the victim in manifest danger, with having taken part in an accidental affray which he provoked and with serving as private guard without the necessary licence.

Throughout the proceedings, the victim had recounted how he had found himself at the centre of the fight, not being able to identify his aggressor but only recalling how “there was confusion” and how in a split second he was being hit from every direction, luckily just managing to cover his face.

The man’s wife had testified that she saw her husband being hit by “all of them” later allegedly recognising the accused in photos posted on Bacco’s Facebook page.

The identified suspect was the man whom she had allegedly seen “hitting him like you’re seeing a movie” and the same person who had grabbed her by the neck, leading her outside while “talking in English.”

Victim was seen punching waiter in the face

The accused himself also took the witness stand explaining how on the day of the incident he had been with his girlfriend for a drink at Bacco’s after finishing his shift at another establishment and before catching the early morning bus back home.

His tall stature had allowed him a good vantage point when the scuffle broke out, the accused  said, explaining how he had spotted the victim’s friend grab a waiter by the shoulders while the victim punched the latter in the face.

Although Mr Stankovic had at first tried to intervene to calm down the situation, he soon stepped back as the fight ballooned so that “events took place at a very fast pace in a very crowded area,” the court was told.

As the accused stepped back to watch, he recalled having seen the victim’s wife jump onto the back of a tall Macedonian man, until the two couples were kicked out of the club.

The accused had pointed out that the man in the footage was taller than himself and denied categorically all along his involvement in any manner in the fight.

After viewing the allegedly incriminating footage, the court, presided over by magistrate Josette Demicoli, observed that although various persons were recognisable the police did not seem to have tried to trace those people.

“After all, more than one person was hitting the parte civile,” the court observed, adding that the police could have asked the establishment to give all the names of the personnel who were on duty that evening.

As for the photo upon which the identification of the accused centred, the prosecution had not explained to the Court how and when the photo was found, adding that the facial features were “not quite the same”.

It was evident that the witnesses were convinced that the person in the photo was the person who actually hit the victim.

“Also, another thing which leaves the Court in doubt is that it was quite dark in the establishment, a lot of people were involved in the fight; for sure some of the men in the footage were of quite a big frame, bald and tall just like the accused and thus a recognition with so much certainty is quite dubious.”

It had also not been proved that the accused had been employed as private guard at the club on the day of the incident.

In the light of such uncertainty, the court cleared the accused of all charges in his regard.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio was defence counsel.