Court lambasts nightclub manager for his role in brutal 2016 beating by bouncers

The manager of a Paceville nightclub has been handed a suspended sentence over a vicious beating delivered to a young Maltese man by his staff, with the court also ordering that an escaped foreign man involved in the crime be traced and brought to justice.

Godwin Micallef, 43, had been charged in 2016 together with two foreign bouncers - 31-year old Miroslav Sasic, from Croatia, and 27-year old Romanian Nicolae Dobra - with injuring two Maltese youths in the assault on 24 February 2016.

Nicholas Aquilina, 20 years old at the time, had suffered grievous injuries and his friend Larkin Stafrace slight injuries in the attack.

Micallef was charged with grievous bodily harm with respect to Aquilina and slight bodily harm to Stafrace, as well as participating in an affray for the purpose of committing homicide or bodily harm, amongst other charges. He was also accused of having operated as a private guard without a licence.

Prosecuting police inspector Elton Taliana had testified how on the 24 February 2016, there had been a fight in Triq San George, Paceville in which Nicholas Aquilina had been beaten up in front of Soho Lounge. Aquilina was taken to Mater Dei Hospital in view of the fact that he had suffered multiple injuries to his face and in other parts of his body.

Taliana had said that Aquilina was accompanied by two other people, including Larkin Stafrace, who was also allegedly beaten up and suffered injuries.

Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that a brawl had taken place in front of Soho Lounge. The first version given to the police was that the manager and some staff from Soho Lounge were involved in this fight and they had beaten up Aquilina.

CCTV footage from various establishments in the vicinity showed Aquilina getting into fisticuffs with the security staff outside the bar, before being set upon by a number of men, said the inspector.

The footage also showed Aquilina repeatedly trying to attack the accused and at a point in time is seen executing a flying kick aimed at the direction of Micallef, tearing his shirt in the process.

Nicholas Aquilina had told the court how on the 23 February 2016, after watching a football match in Paceville, together with his friend Larkin Stafrace and another friend, had returned to Paceville later that evening to meet up with his cousin. When he went to smoke a cigarette outside Soho Lounge he said he had witnessed Godwin Micallef and one of the other staff kicking a man on the floor and immediately went to stop them.

The witness said that he realised that one of them was the manager because he was wearing a blazer while the other man was wearing a shirt. Aquilina said he had tapped the accused on the shoulder and told him to stop, leading to the accused punching him in the mouth. Then another bouncer whom he could not recognise began to beat him, “He got me from my hoodie and I couldn’t see anything else. I tried to get myself lose.”  Stafrace attempted to stop the aggressors from beating him yet the same bouncer kicked Larkin in the face, noted the court.

Whilst Aquilina was demanding an explanation from a bouncer, Godwin Micallef who was behind Aquilina became annoyed at Aquilina’s insistence on getting an explanation, the magistrate was told. Once the bouncer left, Aquilina tried questioning Micallef but he punched the man again on the chin. “And I went back again and told him: “I am trying to reason with you and you punched me again, why are you doing it?” And after a few minutes, he did it again.

A melee ensued, ending with Aquilina on the floor getting punched and kicked in the head.

“I was on the floor, he got me by the neck and started punching me in the face and then another bouncer came to help him and Godwin came punching me, kicking me in the head. And I blacked out at that moment…. He was kicking me in the head, Godwin Micallef. …”

A running battle ensued, with the victim being chased down the Paceville main street, kicked and punched and at one point, beaten with a barstool.

In a judgment delivered against Micallef this morning, magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, which gave a detailed account of the events leading up to the men’s injuries, it was noted that Aquilina stated that as a result of that night’s incident he ended up with stitches on his eyebrow, cheekbone, and lip and that he was kept two days in hospital and had to stay home for one week.

He had difficulty eating and drinking and could only do so by means of a straw, observed the court, also noting that the injured party claimed that the scar beneath the right eye was a consequence of the beating he suffered at Broaster Chicken, a beating in which the accused played no part.

This version of events was largely corroborated by Stafrace, who added that he could see the accused looking on without attempting to break up the affray.

The magistrate refuted the assertion that the accused had been acting in self-defense. “In the case before this Court, the evidence manifests that the accused had already attacked Aquilina and thus it is for this reason that any violent reaction on the latter’s part when he charges towards Micallef intending to kick him, can never serve to excuse the said accused’s actions.”

Whilst the accused was also charged with having purposely provoked the affray to cause bodily harm, no evidence was produced to substantiate this offence. “However, what clearly results from the acts of these proceedings is that the accused embarked on a frenzied attack against Aquilina who as a result suffered multiple scars on his face as well as slight injuries,” said the court. Aquilina had also identified the accused as the one who repeatedly kicked and punched him in the head whilst he was lying helplessly on the ground, after having fractured his nose and broken his lip in at least two previous assaults.

From the evidence tendered by Aquilina, the court said it resulted “that the accused’s role in this brawl starts and ends in the street opposite Soho Lounge.”

It was excluded by both the victim and the evidence that the accused had caused a laceration underneath the victim’s eye, after the brawl had carried on into nearby Broaster Chicken, said the court before emphatically adding that “before the incident at Broaster, the accused had been an active participant in the ‘gang beating’ Aquilina received at the hands of the manager (the accused) and his employees, when the conduct expected from the accused was that of restraining his staff and defending Aquilina rather than conduct himself so despicably!!”

Given the overwhelming evidence regarding the screams and commotion which ensued and spilled over the streets outside Soho Lounge, the fifth charge, of breaching the peace, was also satisfactorily proven by the prosecution.

Micallef was acquitted of having worked as a security guard without a licence as the charge was clearly aimed at the other two men, said the court, which also noted that the evidence had proved to the satisfaction of the court that the public good order had been breached by the accused’s actions.

As a manager, the accused’s role should have been “that of dissuading, nay immediately putting an end to the blatant thuggery by his staff, and not becoming a prime aggressor and willing participant in such a senseless act of brute force and unbridled savagery!” Micallef “chose to fan the flames instead of acting to extinguish them,” observed the magistrate. “Incidents such as these, are sadly becoming all the more frequent and thus the time has come for the message to be driven home that possessing a licence to operate a business does not translate into a licence to use force!”

Finding him guilty of grievous bodily harm, slight bodily harm and breaching the peace, and acquitting him of the remaining charges, the court condemned Micallef him to a term of imprisonment for two years which it suspended for four.

A three-year restraining order in favour of Aquilina and Stafrace was also imposed.

Finally, the court also ordered the police to trace “by any means necessary and investigate” Mihailo Manic, aka Viliko Blesa Stopalo in connection with the assault on Aquilina.

Lawyer Gianella Demarco appeared as parte civile for Aquilina.