Quip about Mario de Marco precipitated Ħamrun PN club assault, court hears

A barbed comment about Mario de Marco triggered an assault in the Ħamrun PN club during a village feast, a court was told today.

The compilation of evidence against Andrew Attard, 48 from Ħamrun, continued before Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo earlier on Friday.  Attard is pleading not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Noel Mifsud Bonnici during the San Cajetan feast celebrations in the town on August 13.

Mifsud Bonnici limped into the courtroom using a crutch to testify about the incident in today’s sitting. 

He told the court that he had gone to the St Cajetan march on his own. After the march left the square, he had walked around and bumped into a group of friends, which included PN leader Bernard Grech.

“At one point someone said ‘let’s go have a drink at the PN każin,” he said, explaining that the group had already been drinking at an outdoor bar set up in front of the club before they went inside.

“I was the fourth or fifth person walking into the club. We found the barman, Manuel,  who stopped us from going in because we had Bernard Grech with us. He shouted at Grech, telling him that he hadn’t gone there in two years…Grech left the club, humiliated.”

“I told the barman, ‘so you left it till today [to raise the issue]?” Mifsud Bonnici recalled.

The two men had exchanged insults, he said. “Then I asked him, ‘So is only Mario de Marco welcome here?’ and they assaulted me.” 

He had ended up on the other side of the road, his assailants raining blows and kicks on him, he said. The magistrate noted that the man’s little finger was still visibly swollen. “I was most worried about my leg, because when I tried to get up, I couldn’t move it “

He had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance. At the hospital, a police inspector had asked whether he could say who had assaulted him. “One of them is Andy Attard, the other one I didn’t recognise. I had described him to the police as short and of robust build.”

The magistrate asked what Attard had done to him. “He kicked me in the leg. That was the last thing he did to me. I don’t remember much about the rest of the incident, everything happened so fast…”

Parte civile lawyer George Camilleri put some questions to the victim.

Mifsud Bonnici had gone to the club “between 45 minutes to an hour” before the incident, he said. “Nobody said anything to me. I went to the bar and saw that I didn’t know anyone there and I didn’t drink anything. Maybe it was too early, but it wasn’t my environment.”

Camilleri asked about the sequence of events. A man called Maurizio had been the first to step inside the club, he said. A man named Manuel was blocking the way inside, suggested the lawyer. “Yes. He is the defendant’s brother,” explained the witness, going on to say that two men had then emerged from the bar and started hitting him, while he was still outside.

The witness explained that initially he had no recollection of the incident and had only started piecing the memories together while he was in hospital.

“After the argument with Manuel, Andrew Attard came out from the side,” Mifsud Bonnici recalled. He had tried to protect his head with his arms, then fell to the ground and was kicked, he said, telling the court that he had ended up spending two days in hospital, recovering from surgery to reattach tendons which had been torn during the beating.

Camilleri asked what the doctors had told him about his recovery prospects.

“They said I need to wait eight weeks in all before they’d be able to tell me whether I’d ever get back to how I was.” 

Camilleri asked how the fight ended  “I think someone came to separate them, I was later told his name was Giovann,”  said Mifsud Bonnici, also confirming that police officers had been present at the time of the incident.

Attard’s defence lawyer, Charles Merceica, cross-examined the victim. The lawyer made reference to the initial account the man had given to the police, as recorded in the PIRS report. Mifsud Bonnici told the court that he had given it over the phone. “I called the sergeant from the hospital that same day.”

He insisted that he had told the sergeant everything that he could remember at the time.

“I was on a drip at the time. I asked the sergeant whether she could come to hospital to take my statement….I gave all the information that I could recall at the time. I was still in shock.”

“I told her the kicks which I had been dealt were like those from kickboxers,” he said. The magistrate asked Mifsud Bonnici whether the sergeant had read out the report she had written, but he could not remember.

Mercieca pointed out that he had mentioned a short and stout man with a goatee as one of the assailants. “So you didn’t mention Andy at all in your first version,” he said.

It was only seven days later, on the 19th, that he had first mentioned the defendant, said the lawyer.”In that version, you mentioned Andy as having attacked you with his fists and the man with the goatee kicking you.”

The witness confirmed that this was the case.

Next on the witness stand was PN MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici.

She told the court that she had attended an appointment with the Leader of the Opposition to go around the political clubs in Ħamrun that day. The MPs from the district were present together with a number of other people, she said.

“What happened was that while we were on the doorstep of the PN club, the barman came out and told us not to enter because there were a number of people of opposing political views, Laburisti, inside.”

“What I remember is seeing a man whom I don’t recognise, emerging from behind the bench used for the outdoor bar. I saw a man wearing a white top, almost flying,” she said, adding that she and Noel Mifsud Bonnici had been having a drink in a group with other people, outside the club while waiting for the band to arrive.

“All I saw was a man coming out of the club like an arrow, in my opinion, heading for Noel. I naturally moved aside because I cannot participate in such commotions. I was accompanying two young nephews of mine and responsibly moved away.”

“I didn’t see the fight, but saw Noel Bonnici on the ground and went to see whether he needed assistance,” the MP recalled. “Something bad had happened to his leg, he told me, possibly that it was broken.”

“I know the defendant as well. He is a Ħamruniż like me, the brother of the barman. Under oath, I cannot say that the defendant was the person wearing the white top.”

Mercieca preemptively objected to any question that could invite the witness to carry out dock identification.“The police had a month to carry out an identity parade,” said the lawyer.

Inspector Zerafa counter-argued that the same court had told her in another case that an identity parade “couldn’t even be used as toilet paper.”

Parte civile lawyer George Camilleri asked the witness how many police officers had been present while the victim was on the ground, but the court overruled the question, saying it was irrelevant to the case.

The man who broke up the fight, Giovanni Theuma, also testified today. He had been attending the festa march in Hamrun at a bar opposite the PN club, outside on the pavement, he said.

“At one point, I heard a lot of shouting. I turned and saw two men on the ground, fighting. I pulled one man away to separate them.” He recognised the victim in the courtroom as the man still on the ground. Theuma said that he had not seen the face of the person he had pulled away, but told the court “he tried to fight me.” 

Mifsud Bonnici had been lying on his back on the ground with the other man grappling with him, he clarified. 

Camilleri asked about the manner in which the men were fighting, but the witness seemed evasive, resisting a direct answer. “They might have been punching each other,” he conceded. “I handed them over to the police.”

“Suddenly there was a big kerfuffle. I heard someone say ‘you don’t enter here” and then I saw two people pushing Mifsud Bonnici and he ended up on the ground. I know one of the men pushing him had tattoos,” another bystander, Albert Bartolo, told the court.

As the sitting came to a close, Mercieca asked for permission to put another question to the victim, which was granted.

“You told us that you spoke to the police on the 13th, then gave a version to Inspector Zerafa on August 19, and then you testified today. Do you remember giving a fourth version to the police?” The witness said he could not.

“So you don’t remember speaking to Inspector Zerafa on August 15?” asked the lawyer.

“It wasn’t an official statement,” Mifsud Bonnici replied.

As the lawyers on both sides bickered, the magistrate put the question to witness himself, asking how he had remembered Attard, after failing to mention him in his first two statements.

“The memory came to me later,” the man replied.

Mercieca added, “so by coincidence, 6 days later, you remembered Andy Attard,” a remark which the court pointed out was not a question but a submission.

Magistrate Farrugia Frendo observed that a bail application had been filed yesterday and was currently still being examined by the Attorney General. Inspector Zerafa said the prosecution was objecting to bail as Attard stood charged with committing another offence while already on bail, but confirmed that the prosecution’s witnesses had now all testified.

On behalf of the parte civile, Camilleri reminded the court that there was still another aggressor at large.

Mercieca argued that there was no reason not to grant bail at this stage. “This case should not even have been prosecuted under arrest. First of all it happened over a month ago, and secondly he was informed of his arrest when he went to sign his bail book. The argument that he should not be given bail because he was already on bail should not be entertained by the court, because that allegation is currently being contested.”

Mercieca asked to be allowed to approach the bench when the magistrate asked what the defendant did for a living. After discussing the matter quietly for around ten minutes, the court announced that a bail decree would be delivered from chambers.

The magistrate then decreed that she had seen sufficient grounds for the AG to issue a bill of indictment. The case continues in October.