Teen still being treated for carnival assault injuries

The mother of a young man savagely beaten up by a group of six assailants in Floriana earlier this month, has told a court that her son was still being treated for the physical and psychological harm he suffered.

The 16-year-old student was in a lot of pain and had become withdrawn, she told Magistrate Nadine Lia on Thursday. “He doesn’t talk.” The facial injuries he suffered required surgery, she said, adding that he was operated on earlier this week, spending eight days in hospital and was still being treated.

His parents had given him and a friend a ride to Valletta, she said. “At around 7pm he called up his father, crying and out of breath. ‘Come pick me up because they beat me up and I’m bleeding,’ he said.”

His father had found the young man on the grass behind a cafeteria in Floriana, dizzy and with several facial injuries, unable to move his arm. An ambulance was called and took the victim to hospital.

“He told us he was going to the bus terminus and the group had followed him. First they demanded his bag. The rest [of the story] he didn't say because he just closed up.”

Her son was still in a lot of pain and was in a bad psychological state, added the woman. “He doesn’t talk and isolates himself.”  He had also required mental health treatment after the incident.

Cross examined by defence lawyer Ishmael Psaila, the woman confirmed that her son did have credit on his phone and had used it to call his father.

Earlier in the sitting, prosecuting police inspector Stephen Gulia, told the court that CCTV footage showed the group meeting at the cafe before heading towards a grassy area. The majority of the suspects were identified from the CCTV footage. The fight appeared to have broken out after the victim had called one of the girls a rapist, the inspector said.

Emergency medicine specialist Dr. Josef Mifsud, who had been first to examine the victim upon his admission to hospital, told the court that the patient was found to have bruising to his cheek and on the bridge of his nose, which was also fractured. “There were scratches over almost all of his face, both lips were swollen and he complained of pain in his teeth.”

Asked by the prosecution where the injuries had come from, the doctor replied that the victim said he had been assaulted.

At the end of the sitting, the court decreed that it had seen sufficient prima facie evidence to indict the defendants, adjourning the case to May.

Police Inspectors Daryl Borg, Stephen Gulia and Shaun Pawney are prosecuting, assisted by prosecutor Kenneth Camilleri.

Lawyers Ishmael Psaila, Dunstan Camilleri. Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Francesca Zarb, Adreana Zammit and Alexia Attard are assisting the defendants.