A man has been conditionally discharged after being convicted of starting a fight with the person renting his mother’s apartment, after going there to change the locks to bar him from entering. 

Magistrate Josette Demicoli did not uphold the plea of self-defence, ruling that according to CCTV footage presented in court, it was Antoine Saliba, 36, who had thrown the first punch. 

The court heard how Mr Saliba ended up with grievous injuries after having been hit with a hoe, suffering a deep laceration to his back, a fractured vertebrae and also fractured one of his shoulder blades. 

On August 5, 2011, Mr Saliba had been changing the locks of his mother’s Żebbuġ flat which was being rented out to Joseph Borg, who was in arrears on his rent payments. 

On the day of the incident, Mr Saliba’s mother had informed Mr Borg that she was going to clean the flat. When she let herself in, she had found heavy damage to the apartment and none of Mr Borg’s belongings were inside, except for his cat. 

As she and her husband were leaving the flat, they met Mr Borg walking in with a box for the cat. He told them he was going to get the money to pay what he owed them, but he never turned up so she told her son to change the locks.

That evening, Mr Borg called her asking for her son to go to the apartment. Fearing for his safety, she sent her husband with him. 

The police told the court that CCTV footage showed Mr Saliba as having thrown the first punch at Mr Borg, cutting him above the eye. The same footage showed Mr Borg and his friends, who had been sitting on the pavement, chasing the accused, beating him up.

The police said that Mr Saliba was hit with a hoe and he used a spirit level to assault his aggressors. 

Despite the video evidence, Mr Saliba denied punching Mr Borg.

After examining case law on legitimate self-defence, the court said this argument could not stand. “The court believes that the accused did not originally go with the intention to fight. It is also convinced that Joseph Borg took his friends with him because he predicted there would be trouble or went for trouble,” Magistrate Demicoli said in her judgment. 

She ruled, however, that the accused should not be found guilty of grievously injuring Mr Borg, who had no remaining scars as a consequence of the blow to his face.

She therefore declared him guilty of slightly injuring the man and conditionally discharged him for six months.