'If you call the police, I'll kill you': man says colleagues beat him up at home

A man told a court that one of four colleagues threatened to "kill him" when they turned up at his flat, beat him up and stole "everything" from him.

The man was testifying in criminal proceedings against Evaneglos Paplios (29), Christos Athanasios Paschalidis (30) and Spyridon Voulgarakis (30), living in Attard, alongside 33-year-old Vasileios Kontogiannis, who lives in Birkirkara, were accused of grievously injuring him.

The man said he has been in Malta working for an iGaming company for the past three and a half months.

On the day of the incident, around four men came to his house with his flatmate. The flatmate knocked on his door and told him that they needed to speak. When the alleged victim opened the door, Paplios entered the room, followed by the three co-accused.

“The first words that they told me were ‘Where is the Moncler [jacket]?’” the witness recalled, stressing that he had been wearing the same clothes for two or three days, because they had stolen his clothes.

Paplios had a flick knife in his hand, which he placed close to the victim’s neck, while Kontogiannis held a fork.

“Paplios put the knife near my neck and said bad words to me,” the witness said, with some help from his interpreter. Pressed to repeat what he was told, the witness said Paplios told him: “I will fuck you”, “whore”, and “I will kill you”.

Paplios then started to punch him with his free hand, the witness recalled, adding that he crouched down and put his arms over his head. The others joined, beating him.

As Kontogiannis and Paplios assaulted him, the other two took his wallet containing Greek bank cards, his Moncler jacket bought by his ex-girlfriend worth some €500, another jacket he bought for €200 and his €300 phone. Hw said they took “everything”.

He testified that he was kicked and punched “everywhere” for more than 40 times for about 10 minutes.

When the prosecution showed the alleged victim photos of himself lying in a hospital bed, the witness recalled that he had a cut along his head and was bleeding from his scalp. He recalled seeing a “broken” fork next to his face.

“I feel very bad seeing this photo,” the witness said, adding that there was blood on the wall, “everything in my room was broken”, and “my clothes were in the living room”.

He added that he sustained injuries to his knee and could not walk properly.

After they allegedly beat him in his room, Kontogiannis pulled the alleged victim by his arm into the living room, where the latter continued to punch the victim.

The witness said Kontogiannis threatened him: “If you call the police, I will kill you. Me in the prison, and I… I don’t know the words,” the witness recalled.

Replying to questions from prosecutor Nicholas De Gaetano, the witness stressed he did not know why he was attacked this way. The witness explained that his flatmate had forked out €200 on his behalf to pay rent, and that he owed the money to him, not the four accused.

The witness was asked what the connection was between his flatmate and the four men, to which he replied that they all worked at the same iGaming company.

“Evaneglos [Paplios] knew I had the Moncler jacket and kept asking for it,” the witness insisted, adding that Voulgarakis had called him earlier, saying that he wanted that jacket and wanted to pay €150 for it.

“They asked some 10 to 20 times for the Moncler jacket,” the witness said about Paplios and Voulgarakis, adding that “they like nice clothes too”.

The witness was then asked about an incident that happened right after the four men were arraigned in court. The alleged victim was cautioned since both the man and the accused filed police reports against each other.

“Paplios told me in Greek: ‘I will take you to Greece and I will kill you',” the witness recalled.

Under cross-examination, the witness said he owed €200 to his flatmate.

Lawyer Nicholas Mifsud asked the witness where his flatmate was in all of this, to which the alleged victim said that he was in the flat but did not intervene, insisting that he was just his “roommate” and not his friend.

“He saw all of it, that they punched me and then left,” the man said, adding that his flatmate did not call the police, and he did not ask his flatmate why he did not call the authorities.

“I was screaming for help. What will he [the flatmate] do with people holding a knife and fork?” the witness said.

Mifsud suggested that the alleged victim borrowed money from different people and owed money to different people, to which the man replied: “I have been here for three months, I don’t think so.”

He then stressed that he has been wearing the same clothes for three days because the four accused allegedly took his expensive clothes.

Mifsud then suggested that the four accused came to discuss with him the money the alleged victim owed them, and the items were given as a guarantee that he would pay them back.

The alleged victim denied saying that a few days ago, when they received their salary, he had given €30 to Voulgarakis and €50 to Paplios “because I know they are dangerous”. It eventually emerged that they loaned him those amounts to buy food.

The man alleged that they threatened to “kill” him and “f***” him.

Mifsud asked the witness whether he had a drug addiction issue, which was met by protests by the alleged victim, who eventually conceded that he smoked cannabis.

The man explained that he was friends with Voulgarakis and Paplios and would go to their house. He claimed he gave them money and that they did not give the money back.

Mifsud suggested that the alleged victim was kicked out of his previous accommodation for failing to pay rent.

The man explained that there were four people and a dog living in a two-bedroom flat, and he had had to sleep on the sofa for a month and a half.

“This is not what we agreed on,” the man said. He denied defaulting on his rent or that he had been kicked out by the police.

The man’s flatmate then took the stand.

He explained that on the morning of the incident, their other flatmate informed him that four people came looking for the alleged victim over money he allegedly owed.

The flatmate made a couple of calls over Instagram, including a call to Voulgarakis, and learnt that they were asking about the alleged victim’s whereabouts after he failed to turn up to work. They asked whether he had returned to Greece.

They also asked for the keys to the apartment, but the witness declined, and informed the quartet that he finishes work at 7pm.

When he finished work, he bumped into the four men, who were waiting for him, a block away from his office.

On the way to the flat, the men allegedly discussed that the alleged victim owed money to different people, varying in amounts from €20 to €200.

The accused wanted to check if the alleged victim was home, the witness recalled.

When they got to the flat, they knocked on the alleged victim’s bedroom door, telling him that they needed to talk.

“I am not sure if my flatmate or one of the guys opened the door, but then things happened which I did not expect,” the witness said.

He recalled that the accused went into his flatmate’s room and started beating him up. He said that he “froze” and did not understand what was happening.

The altercation lasted some 30 seconds to a minute, according to the witness.

He explained that upon seeing this, he understood it was a crime scene and went to pack his things.

He confirmed that he did not call the authorities or the police, and “I knew I could not stop it”.

The flatmate said that “everyone was screaming about money” before the accused brought the alleged victim into the living room, where he was punched, and then they left.

The flatmate left with Voulgarakis, and he confirmed that the accused took some clothes.

During Wednesday’s sitting, the defence made a request for bail, which was strongly objected to by the prosecution due to the men’s lack of ties to the island.

The court is expected to deliver its ruling from chambers.

Magistrate Giannella Camilleri Busuttil presided.

AG lawyer Nicholas DeGaetano prosecuted, assisted by police inspector Clayton Abela.

Lawyers Nicholas Mifsud, Silvan Pulis and Herman Mula appeared for the four accused.