2013 Shadow Lounge stabbing conviction overturned on appeal

A man who was convicted of stabbing a bouncer and another man in 2013 has walked free after an appeals court held that his conviction had rested on a deposition that was “clearly false”.

Jonathan Portelli, a 32-year-old mechanic from Birżebbuġa who had been moonlighting as a DJ in St Julian’s, had been found guilty of stabbing and slightly injuring security officer Michael Zahra, whilst trying to stab another man, Sandro Dimech, with a sharp, pointed instrument during a scuffle at Shadow’s Lounge in Paceville in 2011.

Dimech had consumed no fewer than 12 beers when he made several unsuccessful passes at Portelli’s girlfriend and upset her. During the ensuing argument, Portelli had pushed the heavily intoxicated Dimech, who promptly fell over. Zahra had stepped in when seven of Dimech’s friends joined the fray and Portelli was knocked backwards by a punch to the face.

Dimech had claimed that the appellant had been brandishing a knife, and had caused cuts to his lower torso. Zahra had also suffered injuries in the fight. The knife was never found.

The first court had held that there was no doubt that the injures suffered by Zahra and Dimech could only have been inflicted by the appellant, because the position of the wound clearly indicated that whoever had stabbed Dimech had been standing squarely in front of him. The only two persons in that direction were the accused and Michael Zahra, who had been holding the accused back and therefore could not have inflicted them, the court had said.

But Zahra had testified that he had not seen anything in Portelli’s hands while the latter had been trying to punch Dimech. This constrasted with Dimech’s deposition, however, who had claimed that Portelli had been waving a blade around and had struck Dimech’s belly with it.

“The first court rested on this part of the deposition, which immediately appears to be false,” noted Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, presiding the Court of Criminal Appeal. He pointed out that “Dimech had not even been aware of the blood on his own shirt, because it had been his friends who had drawn his attention to it.”

The court said it had noted several of what it charitably described as “inaccuracies,” in Dimech’s account.

Dimech had also told the court that the police had arrived on the scene after the incident and had taken him to be treated at a medical centre, when a police sergeant had testified that officers had, in fact, not found Dimech at the scene because he had left. When police officers finally located Dimech in Paceville, he had refused to go to hospital or to file a police report.

The court observed that Dimech had told his friend that “someone’s just hit me with something pointy.” Had he really seen the knife in Portelli’s hands, he would have told his friend that he had been stabbed, the court noted.

“Of the 10 witnesses who had been directly involved in the incident, not one had seen anything in Portelli’s hands except the parte civile Sandro Dimech, who chose not to warn anyone that the appellant was armed during this aggression in order for immediate measures to be taken,” the court pointed out.

In its judgement, the Court of Criminal Appeal said it “did not agree at all” with the conclusions of the court of first instance, and could not see how it might have “reasonably and legally” reached the conclusion of guilt.

The central charges were those of inflicting grievous injuries on Zahra, attempting to cause grievous injury and slightly injuring Dimech. “The appellant was not accused of participating in an accidental affray, in which case different principles are used to determine the provenance of wounds to third parties,” the judge said.

The court exonerated Portelli of all charges and released him from all guilt and punishment.

Lawyer Lucio Sciriha assisted Portelli as defence counsel.