A woman who ended up paralysed when an aluminium structure fell on her during a 2008 party in Qawra has had damages awarded to her increased from €463,465 to  €551,589 on appeal.

The appeal court also found that the director of the company that installed the lighting structures, Maurice Attard of Sonlit Ltd, was also liable. Attard had been cleared by the previous court, which pinned the responsibility on event organisers Kevin Micallef and Alan Bugeja.

The incident goes back to the evening of September 14, 2008. The annual ‘End of Summer Festival’, organised under the auspices of the St Paul’s Bay local council, was in full swing at Ta’ Fra Ben when strong winds caused the lighting structure on the main stage to collapse, leaving some eight partygoers injured.

Among them was 17-year-old Vladyslava Kravchenko, who was born in Ukraine but moved to Malta with her mother when she was nine.

Kravchenko in 2016. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Kravchenko suffered a 75 per cent disability that led to her becoming a wheelchair user. She went on to become a Paralympic swimmer, representing Malta 

In 2017 Mr Justice Silvio Meli found that health and safety measures at the party were inadequate and that the organisers had failed to take sufficient precautions at the event.

The aluminium lighting structure had not been firmly secured in place and had nothing to tie or weigh it down, the court observed. That the evening was windy was no excuse, given that the organisers had decided that the party should go ahead.

The court declared that the respondents, except for Attard, were jointly responsible for the incident and consequently were to bear joint responsibiity in damages.

All parties appealed, on various grounds. They all argued that Attard ought to be held responsible. The Court of Criminal Appeal - presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetuti and Judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Anthony Ellul - upheld the plea and increased the damages.

Attard, the director of the lighting company, had been sentenced to a 10-month jail term over the incident in 2016. His lawyers appealed, arguing that the Court of Magistrates had not asked the accused whether he wished to be tried summarily or before the Criminal Court. This meant that Attard had “tacitly” accepted to have the case heard by a magistrate’s court. In 2021 the court sent the case back for retrial.

Back then Kravchenko described this decision as an “insult” as she was left still waiting for justice.