Accused in Gharghur stabbing claims self-defence after being threatened

A court has been told that a youth who is accused of stabbing a man at a Għargħur feast had been acting in self-defence, after being attacked by a group of people and threatened with disembowelment.

Police Inspector Sandra Zammit arraigned 18-year-old Claudio Galea, from Msida, before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja this afternoon, charging him with having stabbed the man in the fracas which took place in Għargħur village square yesterday afternoon.  

Defence lawyer Edward Gatt explained that the accused had gone to the feast with his girlfriend, who is from Għargħur, and had been drinking at the San Bartholomew band club.

Reading from the accused’s police statement, Gatt said that the accused had asked a man, who was knocking an empty vodka bottle against a hard surface, to be careful as there were young children present. According to the lawyer, another man replied that he should mind his own business as he wasn’t from Gharghur and that if he persisted, he would “spill his guts”.

The argument continued outside the bar, during which Galea claims he was then attacked by a mob of around 20 other persons. When one of the attackers tried to stab him with a penknife, Galea managed to wrest it from his grasp and started waving it about indiscriminately to ward them off, the accused’s lawyer said. In the ensuing affray, the victim suffered a wound to the abdomen.

The accused told police that he didn’t know who he had struck nor could he name his attackers, but would be able to identify them.

A police sergeant explained to the court that the victim had spoken to him from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for a stab wound to his liver. The victim had seen a group of people arguing and noticed his brother nearby. As he made his way to his brother, he was stabbed he said. “In Għargħur, they either accept you or they don’t,” said the sergeant.

Gatt told the court that the elements of self-defence were all present, but that in order to avoid lengthy court proceedings, the defence and prosecution had agreed on a suspended sentence in return for a guilty plea.

The magistrate would not allow a person accused to plead guilty simply for the sake of expediency, however, reminding the prosecution and defence that his court "was not the Valletta market" .

A plea of not guilty was subsequently entered and the magistrate granted the accused bail against a personal guarantee of €5,000 and a deposit of €500, ordering he observe a curfew and expressly prohibiting him from entering the Għargħur area.