Just over 400 fights resulting in injuries have been reported in St Julian’s over the past four-and-a-half years, police figures reveal, as calls are made for more policing in the area following an apparent upsurge of violence in the Paceville entertainment hub.
However, this year there were only 28 such fights reported until May, the last month for which figures are available.
The latest incident, not included in the figures, was a brawl on Saturday night that involved bouncers and a group of men.
Among others that made the headlines were three injuries reported from two separate fights a week earlier and, in May, a man attacked restaurant patrons with a knife and glass bottle.
The police figures since 2018 break down the fights according to whether they resulted in “grievous” or “slight” bodily harm.
Of the 28 times that people came to blows up to May this year, the injuries in nine cases were classified as “grievous”.
The other 19 were cases of “slight” bodily harm.
Twenty-two of the fights resulted from “physical force” and the other six from the use of “armed force”, either involving the use of makeshift (“improper”) or “proper” weapons.
A police spokesman said: “Although there was a spate of fights in Paceville in recent weeks, they do not follow a pattern. Recent fights were isolated occurrences motivated by instantaneous incidents where perpetrators had no relationship with their victims.”
The highest number of fights resulting in bodily harm took place in 2019, when the police reported 135. In 41 of those cases, grievous injuries were reported, while weapons of some sort were used in 25 cases.
Fights declined during COVID restrictions
The previous year, 2018, saw a total of 106 reported fights with injuries but figures declined in both 2020 and 2021, when only 67 fights were reported each year.
Those were the two years of COVID, when nightlife and businesses were heavily curtailed by the pandemic restrictions.
Throughout these years, by far the most frequent form of bodily harm caused by these episodes of violence was “slight with arms improper” – a total of 249 of the total 403 cases reported.
Between 2018 and May this year, another 57 reports were filed of “disturbing the public peace”.
The highest number – 23 – was reported in 2019. The number of reports was fairly high in 2018, at 14, but, again, 2020 and 2021 both saw a decline, with six and nine respectively.
Cases may be picking up again this year: until May, five cases of disturbance of the peace have been reported.
Meanwhile, the number of police officers deployed to Paceville has been increased and a dedicated squad is being set up for the area, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo announced on Monday.
There have long been calls for a special squad to be established for Paceville, with St Julian’s mayor, Albert Buttigieg, and former nightclub owner Philip Fenech - now Town Centre Management chairman, both recently making strident appeals for action along these lines.
Still, Fenech said fights were bound to break out in a crowded place like Paceville , and no amount of police officers would prevent isolated incidents from occurring.