Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/680790
2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 18 MAY 2016 News Wedding anniversary turns sour for Britons in Paceville attack MATTHEW AGIUS A British couple who celebrated their first wedding anniversary in Malta will be leaving the is- land with memories of the wrong kind, after they were attacked by a bottle-wielding teenager during a night out in Paceville on Monday. Nineteen-year-old Andrea Galea from Mtarfa stood accused of car- rying out the attack after Inspec- tor Trevor Micallef charged him with inflicting grievous injuries using arms. He was also charged with breaching the peace. Micallef told Magistrate Josette Demicoli how police had been called after a fight took place in the early hours of Monday morn- ing. An injured person had been taken to hospital but had signed himself out, the inspector said. The injured man had told the in- spector that they had been at Ha- vana Club in Paceville that night. On his way to the toilet, someone had passed a comment about his appearance. A fight broke out and the accused allegedly smashed a bottle on his head. The wound required 13 stitches. He also suf- fered cuts to his side. However, the accused released a statement to police, telling a com- pletely different story, the inspec- tor said. Galea had claimed the man had grabbed his buttocks. When asked what was wrong, the Englishman allegedly threw a cigarette at his friend and made an obscene gesture towards him. A commotion broke out and he "was not sure what happened af- ter that". Slash-attack victim Joseph Vine from Portsmouth and his wife Melissa both testified before magistrate Josette Demicoli this morning. "We landed on Monday. I came here to visit my father in law and celebrate our first anni- versary." He had been at Havana at around 2:45am, he recalled, when on his way out of the bathroom, he heard a group of four men pass a derogatory comment about his appearance. Vine said that he had asked them what they said and was struck in the head with the bottle. "I fell to the floor and he must have swiped my back with the broken bottle." The men were escorted outside, the accused was arrested immedi- ately and Vine was taken to hos- pital in an ambulance. Vine said that he also required stitches to his arm. He said he had recognized the accused at the police station when he had gone to file a report the next morning after being dis- charged from hospital. Cross-examined by defence law- yer Kathleen Grima, Vine said that they had been in Paceville since 8pm. The couple had been drinking cocktails at a bar be- fore going to Havana at around midnight. His recall was calm and clear, despite the alcohol in- take, down to what he and the ac- cused had been wearing. He was drinking beer at Havana, he said, four or five bottles. "My wife was drinking amaretto and Coke." The man's wife, Melissa Vine, testified after him. She had been waiting outside the club for her husband when he emerged, cov- ered in blood. "We weren't out to get re- ally drunk, so we just had a few [drinks]." She had not been drunk, she said. "I still knew what was going on," describing her husband as being "merry drunk" not fall- down drunk, at the time. The defence requested bail, which the court granted in view of the fact that the witnesses had already testified. Galea was released from arrest against a deposit of €1,500 and a personal guarantee of €5,500. He was also ordered to observe a cur- few. Two grievously injured in traffic accidents A thirty-year-old Zebbug resi- dent was grievously injured in a traffic accident at Triq Hal Far- rug, in Mqabba yesterday morn- ing. The accident occurred at 09.00 am and preliminary investiga- tions show that the man, who was driving a Citroen C2, lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the fence surrounding the airport. An ambulance was called on- to the scene, and the man was rushed to mater Dei hospital for medical attention, where his in- juries were certified as grievous. Earlier, police officers were called on the scene of another ac- cident in Mikiel Anton Vassalli Street, Msida. At around 7:00am a 25-year- old woman from San Gwann was driving her Kawasaki motorcycle when she lost control and slid. An ambulance took the woman to Mater Dei hospital for medical treatment, only to later confirm the serious nature of her injuries. Police investigations are still underway on both cases. The injured man was hit by a bottle in the head during a fracas at Havana club in Paceville Woman charged with immigration offences had fled to Malta after terrorists murdered sister MATTHEW AGIUS A woman accused of making a false declaration to Identity Malta in order to renew her residence permit has explained that she had fled her native Columbia for Malta, after her sister was murdered in a terrorist act there. Twenty-nine-year-old Natalia Del Pilar Toro Escobar appeared in court before Magistrate Jo- sette Demicoli yesterday morning, charged with making a false decla- ration to the authorities. Defence lawyer Roberto Mon- talto entered plea of not guilty and requested bail. Prosecuting Inspector Darren Buhagiar objected to the defence's request, however. The accused had presented false documents to Iden- tity Malta in order to extend her residence permit in Malta. She did not have a genuine reason to stay and so had pretended to still be learning English at an English lan- guage school, he said. The woman was a flight risk as she had given police an address of a flat in Pace- ville, which may or may not be cor- rect, as her place of residence. The woman had tried to deceive the authorities and therefore was not trustworthy. She had admitted to the police that the documents she had presented had been false, he added. But Montalto submitted that from experience, not every time that an accused person assumed responsibility for an action did it bring with it criminal responsibil- ity. Had she pleaded guilty, he ex- plained, she would be detained and expelled from the country, most likely being deported back to Co- lombia. Her parents had sent her to Malta after her 17-year-old sister was murdered in Colombia in what he described as a "terrorist act". She had established herself here and was studying. Going back to Colombia is not an option, said the lawyer, due to the risks to her safe- ty. "Could it be the actions of the accused were not performed out of malice, but have been necessary for her self-preservation?" he asked. "We have a person accused of making false accusations in order to stay here. There is no minimum penalty for the offence. A prison sentence is not really on the table. So with this in mind, why would she want to flee?" The accused is a Colombian citi- zen with an expired passport, ex- plained the lawyer. She has been in Malta for four and a half years and had no previous problems with the law. While her address was not permanent, she had spent seven months residing there. The defence further argued that the Colombian consulate had known of her case for two years and had been in regular contact with her. The consul had vouched for her being a trustworthy indi- vidual, said the lawyer. Inspector Buhagiar replied that, while he sympathised with her plight, it didn't remove the respon- sibility for her crime, pointing out that she could have claimed asy- lum. The court, after hearing submis- sions, granted bail against a deposit of €1,500 and a personal guarantee of €5,000. Gozitan used demon Pazuzu from The Exorcist for €3,000 'curse' Gozitan medium cleared of fraud, as court holds that charge of taking advantage of gullible person was time-barred MATTHEW AGIUS A Gozitan man has been cleared of fraud after he failed to summon the 30,000 year old demon Pazu- zu, a demon king in Assyrian my- thology and also the supernatural antagonist that takes control of the little Regan McNeil in the film The Exorcist. Mario Cardona, 36, of Victoria, Gozo was paid €3,000 by Carol Milroy to place a curse upon an unnamed woman who had alleg- edly been conducting an illicit af- fair with Milroy's then husband, Iain, in October 2014. Iain Milroy had found this out when his wife had left her Face- book page open and a message from the accused had come in. Pazuzu is the main supernatural antagonist in the film The Exor- cist. Inspector Bernard Charles Spi- teri told Magistrate Joseph Mifsud that the accused had been paid ap- proximately €3,000 by Milroy for this "service". She had approached the accused and asked whether he knew "a simple curse that I can cast on the woman that Iain had an affair with? She is now back home in France … Sorry to ask but hate this woman so much." The couple have since divorced, the court was told. Cardona allegedly told the woman that he would be using a spiritualistic ritual to invoke the Pazuzu demon, a king of demons, who would cause the extra-mari- tal relationship to come to an end and her husband to return. Cardona had failed to return the money to Carol Milroy when the curse failed. Magistrate Mifsud, presiding the court of magistrates in Gozo, pointed out that there was no law dealing with fraudulent medi- ums, unlike England and Wales, which up to 2008 had the 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act. The act was aimed at prohibiting persons claiming to be "psychics, mediums or other spiritualists" from mak- ing money from deception. That law had been repealed in 2008 by an EU directive legislating against unfair sales and marketing prac- tices. Iain Milroy lacked the right of audience in the proceedings and could, at best, be a witness, the court held. It also noted, how- ever, that Iain Milroy had not been present when money had changed hands with the accused and had not known what the accused had agreed with his ex-wife. The court dismissed the case, pointing out that it was clear that it had been the woman who had approached the medium and not vice-versa. "From the documents exhibited by the prosecution, by no stretch of the imagination can one reach the conclusion that the accused had deceived Carol Mil- roy," the court held, as it was she who had approached the accused. An alternative charge of taking advantage of a person's gullibility was time-barred. The court held that it had not seen sufficient evidence to place Cardona under a bill of indictment and ordered his release. In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu (sometimes Fazuzu or Pazuza) was the king of the demons of the wind, brother of Humbaba and son of the god Hanbi