A man who attacked four strangers while under the influence of a mixture of synthetic drugs and alcohol has been jailed for six years.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello also brought into force a 15-month prison term that had been suspended by the court at the time when the attacks took place.

Ramon Attard, a 25-year-old man from Birżebbuġa, was convicted of attacking three men and a woman over two successive days in March 2022.

The strangers were attacked and robbed in Ħamrun, Gwardamanġa and Pietà.

The court heard how on the evening of March 26, 2022, Attard approached a man in the garden in the vicinity of Portes des Bombes.

The two went to a secluded spot together. While they were there, Attard ordered the man to give him his mobile.

When the man resisted, he started beating him, kicking him, and punching him.

The victim told the court that he pleaded with his assailant to allow him to remove the SIM cards because he used his mobile for work and that his mobile contained messages and photographs of his deceased father.

However, Attard continued to hit him and fled with his mobile phone.

The victim said that although he could not identify his assailant both because he was wearing a mask and also because it was dark, his voice was something he could never forget.

He spent five days bleeding from his nose.

According to evidence presented in court, Attard used his victim’s credit card several times, including at a convenience shop nearby, just minutes after the reported assault.

He purchased several bottles of whisky, one of which was then used during another assault the following day.

At around 3pm the following day, he approached a man who was sheltering from the rain in the same garden. The man, wearing a hoodie and a facemask, first said hello and then hit him in the head with a large stone.

While he was on the ground in agony, the man stole cash and his Samsung mobile from his pockets. He identified the man as the defendant through a visible tattoo he had on his neck.

Later that afternoon, Attard attacked a man with a whisky bottle in Pietà while he was waiting for his friend to visit him at home.

During the same assault, a 63-year-old woman who lives in the same block was also injured with glass from the bottle, requiring sutures on her lips.

The accused testified that he does not remember anything, not even that he injured four people in three separate incidents.

He claimed that this amnesia was a result of the consumption of synthetic drugs. He said that he had been abusing drugs and alcohol since 2013.

In her decision, Magistrate Rachel Montebello rejected the thesis that the accused acted in self-defence or that he was excused because he had consumed synthetic drugs and alcohol.

Magistrate Montebello condemned his actions, noting that he had filmed an assault on one of his victims where he (the victim) could be heard screaming in pain.

She said that although it was evident that he was showing the will to overcome his addiction to drugs and alcohol, even through his family’s support, he was not fit to be roaming the streets until he overcame his habits.

The evidence in this case clearly showed the effects of the use of synthetic drugs and the dangers it poses to those who take them and to society, the court noted.

Police Inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Lydon Zammit prosecuted.