A woman who was stabbed by a stranger on a St Julian’s beach earlier this month, recalled the “terrifying look” on her aggressor’s face as she testified about the incident in court on Tuesday. 

“I was very scared when I saw the look on his face,” said the woman, as she testified about the violent incident which took place at sunrise on August 7 when an early-morning dip in the sea turned into a nightmare.

The alleged victim recounted the ordeal when testifying against Fabian Medina Paira, a 21-year-old fellow Colombian national, who is pleading not guilty to attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, breaching the public peace and leading an idle and vagrant life.

That morning she had gone to the beach with three other friends. Two of them left before the incident but she and a male friend decided to swim.

“It was sunrise,” the woman said, assisted in court by an interpreter.

She and her friend had spotted the accused earlier on. “He was talking to himself. We ignored him thinking that he was some lone soul, going about the place.”

But when she and her friend got into the water, they noticed the stranger approaching her bag, which contained two mobile phones, a camera and her personal belongings.

The man sat down some two metres away from the momentarily unattended bag.

Paira then got up and as he approached the bag, grabbed a glass bottle and flung it. The glass shattered on the rocks.

“He’s going to steal our belongings,” the witness recalled telling her friend.

Sensing trouble, she left the water, went up some steps and approached the stranger.

“When I came face to face with him, his look was terrifying. I was very scared when I saw the look on his face,” said the woman.

Instinctively, she picked up another bottle and addressed the stranger, “What happened bro?”

After that, she did not recall much.

Victim thought of her baby son through ambulance ride 

She vaguely recollected lying on the ground, her aggressor on top of her as she fended off the attack, said the witness, placing her hands, palms outwards, in front of her face as she acted out her actions during the attack.

Then she recalled her friend’s voice, pleading with her, “Don’t sleep. Please don’t sleep,” as he shouted for help.

The wailing of the ambulance and police sirens drifted into her memory, as she tried to resist the overwhelming drowsiness.

“I felt physically very weak. An image of my baby son flashed before my eyes. I kept awake for him.”

During the ride to the hospital, she heard doctors’ voices then she was wheeled into a ward where there were “many doctors.”

X-rays confirmed that she had suffered great blood loss and needed surgery because there was blood in her lungs.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Mark Busuttil, the witness explained that she had picked up a glass bottle because she was scared by the look on the stranger’s face.

She drifted in and out of consciousness during the attack and could not explain how she ended up on the ground, under the aggressor whom she identified in court.

When asked by paramedics in the ambulance how she had been wounded, she replied, “A bottle.”

However, doctors confirmed that the injuries on the left side of her abdomen were not compatible with a broken bottle but some other weapon.

Presiding magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech intervened occasionally to block or moderate questions by the defence, pointing out that the court would not tolerate secondary victimization of the victim.

The attack was over “in a matter of seconds,” said the victim, lifting her top to allow a glimpse of her injuries.

The court observed that a brownish mark on the witness’s left side of the chest, below the clavicle, was visible “at a distance of some three metres.”

As the testimony came to an end, the court declared that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for the accused to stand trial on indictment.

The case continues.

AG lawyer Kaylie Bonett and Inspector Shawn Pawney prosecuted.

Lawyer Mark Busuttil was legal aid counsel.