Coltello e panico a Marsa: assolto dopo scontro per salvare la sorella

The incident happened in Triq Balbi, Marsa.

A man, who answered his panicked sister’s call for help as she was allegedly attacked inside a Marsa apartment, was cleared of grievously injuring the suspected knife-wielding aggressor.

Judgment was handed in the case against Godwil Chidi Anyanwu, a 34-year-old Nigerian national, over the violent incident which broke out close on April 8, 2022, inside an apartment on Balbi Street, Marsa.

That evening the defendant was at his Marsa shop, a short distance away from the apartment, when his sister called for help, crying on the phone as she tried to explain that a man was attacking her.

The suspected aggressor lived in that apartment with his wife and other persons.

Chidi rushed to his sister’s side, along with her boyfriend and another man who were with him at the shop.

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When the three men arrived at the scene, a scuffle broke out. Chidi’s sister and three other persons, including the alleged aggressor man, suffered injuries. Chidi bore no visible injuries.

Police were alerted to the violent incident. Chidi was subsequently charged with grievously injuring the Sudanese man, using force to insult or hurt his alleged victim and wilfully disturbing the public peace.

He pleaded not guilty.

Throughout the proceedings, the accused’s sister, her female flatmate and the two men who had accompanied Chidi to the scene testified and gave their first-hand accounts of what happened that night.

‘Everyone was in a panic’

When the accused and his two friends arrived at the flat they were met by the Sudanese man who tried to block their entry. Holding a knife in one hand, the man allegedly threw a chair and other items down the stairs as the three men tried to get into the apartment.

One of them recalled how “everyone was in a panic”.

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The accused’s sister recalled how it had all started.

Earlier that evening when she arrived at the flat, the Sudanese guy began to film her with his mobile, holding the device close to her face. When she told him to stop, he ignored her.

She grabbed his hand, pushing it away from her face. He reacted by beating her. That was when she called her brother for help.

But her alleged aggressor warned that if she had called anyone to “come and fight” he would “kill them”.

When her brother turned up, her alleged aggressor ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and went to face her sibling.

In the scuffle that ensued, she suffered knife injuries to the neck. She managed to escape and locked herself in her room. She only emerged when police arrived at the apartment.

The two men who went to the scene and witnessed the incident at some stage  also gave their version.

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Accused called the police

The accused chose not to testify.

However, the court observed that in his police statement, he denied having punched the Sudanese man, the alleged victim in the proceedings.

He was the one to go out of the apartment to call the police, leaving his friends inside.

Neither the alleged victim nor his wife testified.

The court observed that “numerous attempts over a span of two years were carried out to trace them and bring them forward to testify… [but] all to no avail.”

When all was considered the court, presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, observed that the witnesses’ versions were “broadly compatible”.

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All witnesses claimed they had been assaulted by the alleged victim.

There was no evidence that the accused had caused any injuries to the alleged victim.

The court also noted that the alleged victim made no mention of the injuries suffered by the accused’s sister.

However it was “abundantly proved that he did indeed hit her and also cut her neck with the knife,” observed the court. Those injuries were also medically certified.

The court concluded that the accused’s version was not “undermined or contradicted” by the witnesses’ testimonies.

“In the absence of the direct testimony of the alleged victim himself, it is difficult to accept that the accused, who suffered no injuries whatsoever, should be identified as the person who caused grievous injuries to the alleged victim, an armed assailant who wielded a knife and caused injuries to three other persons.”

The court also observed that while the accused went out of the apartment to call the police, other persons were inside with the alleged victim.

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It could have “reasonably” been one of those other persons who were injured by the alleged victim in the scuffle, to have injured him in turn.

When taken together, these considerations gave rise to reasonable doubt as to the accused’s guilt.

Nor did the prosecution prove that the accused attempted to use force against the alleged victim and his wife.

Lawyer Matthew Xuereb was defence counsel.