Newlywed couple 'attacked' after collision

A newlywed couple, Jonathan and Melissa Farrugia, are demanding explanations as to why their assailants were not arrested on site after they allegedly attacked them and threatened them with a "sizeable" knife.

The young couple's lawyer, Anglu Farrugia, yesterday sent a letter to the police asking why the men in question were not held there and then considering the violent nature of the attack.

On Wednesday, the couple crashed into three cars in Zebbug. The couple said a man started yelling at them, brandishing a "sizeable" knife which they say he got from his van.

"At first a boy, not more than 10 years old or thereabouts, approached us saying there wasn't all that much damage. Then suddenly this man comes out cursing and yelling. We told him that everything would be sorted out but he wouldn't have it; he pulled out this huge knife and said: 'I'll show you what will be sorted... come here let me stab you'," Mrs Farrugia recounted, still visibly shaken.

She said she ran as the man approached. Her husband threw himself at the approaching man and pushed him to the ground. In the meantime, the assailant asked the boy to call his brother and after a short while two men appeared on the scene.

By this time Mrs Farrugia had called both her parents and the police. The couple fled but at one point Mr Farrugia returned to try to speak rationally to one of the attackers who was saying: "I want Lm1,000 in damages, now".

Upon reaching them, however, the man produced a wooden club, Mr Farrugia said. Mr Farrugia said he ran and hid in a garage where he said he was spotted and beaten by the three men. He was even hit him with the club on his face by one of the men, Mr Farrugia added.

By this time, Mrs Farrugia's parents and two relatives from Australia, currently visiting, had made it to the scene. "Melissa was crying desperately in a corner alone but Jonathan was nowhere to be seen," the parents said.

Somehow, Mr Farrugia managed to run away from the men in the garage and everyone then converged upon the scene of the incident. The police arrived shortly after.

By the time the police arrived one of the three men had left the scene, the couple recounted.

Besides the ordeal linked to the attack, the couple and their family are up in arms over what happened after, when the police appeared. "The police came over and immediately approached the first man, with whom they had an almost casual chat on first name basis," the woman's father, Michael Buttigieg, said. All three said the police did not seem to have searched for the "weapons" used.

"When my wife approached the police asking them to speak to us as well and pointing out some facts, the police told her to stop or they would take her in.

"They spent some time taking statements and only took my own statement upon my insistence. Their lawyer was on site within five minutes. That is when we realised that it would be better if we got our own lawyer," Mr Buttigieg pointed out.

Contacted for comments, Dr Farrugia told The Times he had sent a letter to the police to establish why the men in question were not arrested immediately. "The arrests should have taken place on the spot given the serious nature of the attacks. If this were to become the procedure... not arresting immediately in cases like these, then we would have anarchy," he said.

The Times tried to get the version of eyewitnesses who, the couple claim, were there watching the whole time but did nothing. "One road worker on the other side at one stage told me to seek shelter and offered me a spade with which to defend myself," Mrs Farrugia recalled. However, when the Farrugias asked the police about the eyewitness accounts, the officers said that everyone denied having witnessed anything.

The Times yesterday spoke to men working at the site close to where the incident occurred. Some said they were not working on the day of the incident and others that they did not see anything. "Be careful, be very careful," one workers said, insisting he did not see anything.

Contacted for his version of the events, one of the men allegedly involved in the incident at first said there was no argument but when pressed he said: "Well, there was a small misunderstanding".

When told that Mr Farrugia claimed he had hit him in the face with a wooden bat, the man replied: "Why don't you come here so we can talk?"

When The Times fielded questions to the police, an inspector from the Qormi police station said the matter was in the hands of the Zebbug police station. He then said the press should go through the proper channels and contact the CMRU - the community and media relations unit. Questions were put to the CMRU but no reply was forthcoming by the time of writing.

A spokesman for the Police Commissioner said the police were not in a position to give any details while investigations continued.