'I did not mean to do it'

A teenage boy standing trial for murder told his brother he did not mean to hit the victim with a penknife he had snatched during a fight in Paceville as he only wanted to avoid being beaten, jurors heard yesterday.

Christopher Pullicino took the witness stand in the trial of his brother Glen and explained how on their way home on the day of the incident his brother burst into tears and said: "What have I done?... I acted hastily. I did not mean to do it".

Christopher Pullicino said his brother had told him he had only done what he did because he was being beaten and he believed him on seeing the marks on his brother's body.

Glen Pullicino, 17, of Zebbug, is pleading not guilty to the murder of Brian Tabone, 23, outside Bamboo Bar, in Paceville on March 17, 2002, at about 5.45 p.m.

Earlier, his brother explained that on the day of the incident he went to Bamboo Bar with Michael Scicluna and Mario Abraham Baldcchino.

While he was walking out of the bar he saw bouncers run past and a stool fly across. When he looked behind him he saw that "the ironmonger's son" had been hit and after some time he saw the bouncers hit Scicluna with a metal T-shaped bar and intervened until they managed to get out of the bar with the crowd.

Christopher Pullicino said that when he went outside he saw his brother. Suddenly, a man wearing long hair and a purple shirt walked out of the bar, shouting, and hit him with his elbow.

Other people followed the man out of the bar. "There was confusion and a commotion I had never seen before. It was like something out of a film. I was very scared since I thought I'd get hit," he said.

The witness said he saw the man produce a shiny pointed instrument from his pocket. When the fight broke out, he explained, he lost sight of his brother and only met him later on when they were running away from the fight.

As he was driving home in his father's van his brother, who was sitting in the back, burst into tears and said he had acted hastily and had hit a man with a penknife but did not know who he had hit.

The witness said that on the way home all the boys in the van (whom he was giving a lift home) were sorry because they did not want to get involved in the fight. "I did not want my parents, with whom I have an open relationship, to worry or think that we got involved in the fight to show off," he said.

Mario Abraham Baldacchino said he saw Scicluna being carried out of the bar by bouncers who said they were going to beat him and Christopher Pullicino intervened to stop them.

"A man with long hair and a purple shirt walked out and started shouting: 'Who is the coward?' and then hit Chris with his elbow. The man then ran towards Michael Scicluna and got something shiny out of his pocket. Other people ran out of the bar and that was when the fight broke out. I was hit by a hard object and ran away," he said.

Baldacchino confirmed that in a statement released to police he said that on the way home Glen Pullicino looked scared and when he asked him what was wrong the accused told him he had stabbed a man with a penknife in a fight.

Francis Farrugia said he was inside the bar when he realised that his son Jonathan and Tabone were outside where there was a group of people standing by his car.

He told them to go back inside but Tabone signalled that there were the children in the car. Farrugia explained that there was his daughter, his three-year-old son and Tabone's two-month-old baby in the car and so he panicked.

"I told the group of young men to move away from the car and before I even finished my sentence I was hit in the eye with a bottle and started bleeding so heavily that I thought I had gone blind. I got very angry, felt surrounded and started fighting... I would not have fought had I not been hit... I only hit the ones who assaulted me," he said.

He went on to explain that as he was fighting he heard his son shout that Tabone had been stabbed. He chased some of the young men who were running up the road in an attempt to catch one of them. As he was running he met policemen.

The trial, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, continues this morning.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara is prosecuting.

Dr Giannella Caruana Curran, Dr Emanuel Mallia, Dr Michael Sciriha and Dr John Attard Montalto are appearing for Pullicino.