Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/900922
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2017 News 5 TIA RELJIC A 19-year-old man suffered a cannibalistic attack after he was bitten on his side during an argument at a club in St Ju- lian's, MaltaToday has learnt. The argument between the teenager and four adult men took place at Level 22 in the Portomaso Tower between Sat- urday and Sunday. A woman also suffered head injuries. Sources said that a verbal confrontation escalated to the point that one of the adult males ended up biting the young man in an incident de- scribed by an onlooker as "pos- sibly drug-induced cannibalis- tic behaviour". According to the onlooker, one of the four men tried to kiss and touch the young man while the two groups were on the club's balcony. The boy, a Swiss national, was joined by his sister and escort- ed out by bouncers. While the two left the club, two women verbally con- fronted the group of men, who were described as being "well- dressed". The altercation escalated to physical assault, with the four men allegedly beating the two girls, kicking them in the stom- ach and hitting one of them on the head. A witness who intervened said that she confronted the alleged aggressor about bit- ing the boy, but as she turned her back to exit, she saw that the women were also being at- tacked. "It took me a while to find the bouncers, but it seemed as if they might have been pur- posely avoiding the situation," she said. Since there were no bouncers in sight, it was ran- dom bystanders who provided assistance. One of them claimed that the manager was asked to call the police and an ambulance. None arrived and the aggres- sors were allowed to leave the club unhindered. "When we asked for assis- tance, [the manager] said the police were on the way. Even- tually we found out he never called the police," a woman said. A woman who witnessed both incidents and later assisted the victims, taking them to hospi- tal and to the police station, de- scribed the victims as being in a "state of shock, visibly shaken and scared." When contacted, Peter Pace, general manager of Level 22, acknowledged that an alterca- tion had taken place but in- sisted on a different version of events. He told MaltaToday that the young man threw the first punch, and that the argu- ment revolved around a female friend who was accompanying him. Pace said that the club's secu- rity personnel had intervened swiftly to remove the youth from the altercation. After finding out that he was hurt, personnel fetched disinfectant spray to administer first aid. Pace said he did not see the man being bitten and could not even understand how it could have happened. He said that while he was busy tending to the man's wound, he could not control the situation which developed between the man's female companions and the four men. "One of the men tried to calm her [one of the girls] down, but she was very shaken," Pace said. According to him, one of the men pushed a woman, who then proceeded to kick him, to which he retaliated with exces- sive force. "He shouldn't have done that," Pace said, "a man should never hit a woman, and I don't agree with what he did in the slightest." "But we didn't know that this was going on at the same time, as we were dealing with [the injured man]," he said, explain- ing that the club only has three bouncers, and that he only as- certained the true sequence of events after watching CCTV footage. Pace denied saying that he was going to call the police. "It's not my responsibility to phone the police," he said. "If something happened, they should go and file a police re- port themselves." He said that everything was caught on CCTV, and that he would be prepared to pass a copy of the footage on to the police, if so requested, as al- ways happened in similar in- stances. "It's not true that we refused to help. If it wasn't for [our bouncers], the [young man] would have been killed." All victims went to St James hospital, where the boy re- ceived a vaccination for the serious bite wound, and is due for further tests for HIV and Hepatitis as a result, sources say. The young woman was then sent to Mater Dei hospital for further treatment. A police report was filed. Club fight leaves young man with gory bite wound The bite wound suffered by the young man Office Space Required at Marsa or neighbouring areas The Ministry for the Family, Children's Rights and Social Solidarity would like to receive offers for the lease of office space in Marsa or neighbouring areas, with a minimum area of 200 square metres and preferably in a zone where there are adequate parking spaces. Information is to be submitted in a sealed envelope, and deposited at the Directorate for Corporate Services, Ministry the Family, Children's Rights and Social Solidarity, Level 4, Palazzo Ferreria, Republic Street, Valletta by noon of Wednesday 22nd November , 2017