Thugs have threatened to kill a British father after their friend died from a brain injury days after he was caught up in a Maltese hotel brawl.
Liam Stacey, 29, was relaxing beside the pool with his three young daughters, aged two, three and eight, when a group of locals began exposing themselves to sunbathers.
‘The Maltese group were being really rowdy, showing their private parts around all the children’s pool area,’ Liam’s mother Dawn Lockyer told Daily Mail.
Liam confronted the thugs, who were also seen pulling a woman by the hair and dangling a baby upside down, and asked them to move elsewhere.
But his polite request was answered with violence as one of the men, Roderick Sciortino, slapped him across the face and sent him stumbling over his toddler daughter.
Liam hit back with a single punch, knocking Sciortino to the ground. Sciortino died in hospital from a brain aneurysm on July 31, five days after the fight.
Liam has been accused of causing grievous bodily harm but denies the charges.
In court, a medical expert said the death was not caused by the blow, describing it instead as a ‘pathological bleed’ that struck at the wrong moment.
Despite the medical evidence clearing Liam’s name, Sciortino’s relatives turned up to the hearing, shouting threats and making cut-throat gestures at him from the public gallery.
‘They all went into the court and surrounded him and were doing slit your throat signs with their fingers and saying that they want revenge,’ Ms Lockyer said.
Liam was arrested after the fight but has been released on bail and is currently in the UK, but must return to Malta to continue the trial.
Ms Lockyer says she ‘can’t stand the thought of him having to go back there’ as she fears Sciortino’s family might try and hurt her son.
Liam also told his mother he fears if he went to prison in Malta he wouldn’t come out alive.
‘He was arrested and put into the cells and he said it was absolutely awful. He said if he ever had to do jail there, he would never come out alive. He said it was horrendous,’ Ms Lockyer recalled.
She is also concerned Liam might not even be safe in the UK and says relatives have been trying to contact her on Facebook saying they want to talk to Liam.
‘I fear for Liam’s safety going back there. I also fear for him being here because I just don’t know how far they’re going to take it. Because they’re blaming Liam.’
Liam had been on holiday with his partner, children, and parents when the trip took a tragic turn for the worst.
A group of drunken locals who had been reportedly started disturbing hotel guests by exposing themselves and fighting.
‘My son asked them to take it away from the children’s pool and the man hit him. My son landed on my granddaughter, who’s two, and she started crying. And then obviously, my son’s retaliation was hit back,’ Ms Lockyer said.
‘It just happened so fast because the Maltese man slaps Liam quite quickly. He never gives Liam a chance to speak.’
Shocking footage shows holidaymakers screaming as the fight spiraled out of control, with video showing fists flying before Sciortino lay unconscious by the poolside.
Staff tried to contain the chaos but the group reportedly threatened to throw them in the pool.
Ms Lockyer says Liam has been left ‘absolutely devastated’ by the incident which she claims is completely out of character for him.
‘It’s not in Liam’s character to be like that. He’s really laid back so it was a bit of a shock.’
She added: ‘He’s not sleeping. He’s on sleeping tablets. He can’t think of anything else.’
During the trial, one witness, British senior police officer Tonya Cook, explained how a group of seven to eight Maltese individuals arrived that morning and began to drink heavily.
They had a baby with them and, according to Cook, were spilling their drinks and even hanging the child upside down.
After having lunch with her husband, Cook returned and found the group taking personal items of the guests from their sunbeds so that they could get loungers where they wanted.
Later on, Cook heard screams coming from the pool and saw one man in red shorts shouting at a woman and pulling her hair.
She also described the water as being full of a woman’s hair and having a strange colour.
Although she and her friends had asked hotel staff to intervene, they refused, not wanting to get involved.
Cook then found a crowd around a Maltese man on the floor ‘turning blue’ as well as her friend, an emergency doctor, performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on him.
She also recalled seeing a man in red shorts running towards the exit, hitting people as he went through and making strange noises.
Although Cook pleaded with hotel staff to lock the doors, they refused since this man was a paying guest.
Cook managed to hold the man and even asked police officers to arrest him. Although he was detained, he was later released once he began to cry.
The police officer also recalled her encounter with Stacey’s partner, Natasha Jerrard, who she described as being ‘absolutely distraught’.
After helping Jerrard to her room, Cook was informed by Stacey that he pushed someone who had punched him.
Jerrard also testified that one of the men had come up to, and slapped Stacey, causing him to fall on their two-year-old.
She added that her partner got up and punched the man, who fell on the ground.
Martin Wesley, the partner of Stacey’s mother, also provided testimony and referred to the group of Maltese individuals who were ‘drinking loads’.
According to Wesley, Stacey had told the group to be quiet as they had been upsetting the children.
Following coverage of the incident, hospitality and leisure company the db Group condemned all violence and inappropriate behaviour.
It said: ‘db Group is treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and has launched internal investigation.
‘db Group is fully cooperating with all the relevant authorities to ensure transparency and accountability. In addition, we have also taken other preemptive actions such as strengthening of security measures and a review of our admissions policy.’
They added that if it shortcomings from staff members come to light, ‘disciplinary action will be taken without any hesitation.’
