Former University student Glanville Goodlip who last week was handed a suspended sentence jail term filed an appeal from judgment as the punishment handed down by the court would revoke his auditor's warrant

On December 2, 2011, Goodlip, a B. Com (Hons.) student who was 22 years old at the time of the incident, was accused of grievously harming the Science Faculty Dean, Prof. Carmelo Sammut, during the celebrations of the newly graduated students on December 1. The accused claimed Sammut punched him in the face and broke his nose. 

The two apparently came to blows after Goodlip sounded a fog-horn close to the dean's ears and in turn the professor got hold of the fog horn and threw it to the ground. A scuffle ensued and Goodlip hit the dean with a bottle and continued beating him, despite the professor having fallen to the floor due to the blows he received. 

On December 2 this year Goodlip was handed down a six-month suspended jail term by a Magistrates’ Court.

In his appeal, the young men said that he assaulted the dean after he was provoked by the victim.

While snatching the fog horn from the student’s hands in a fit of rage, Prof. Sammut knocked off Goodlip’s sunglasses, scratching his face in the process. When the student went down to look for the sunglasses the dean pushed him to the floor.  It was after this happened that Goodlip reacted.

The defence argued that the youth should have been treated as a first-time offender by the Magistrates’ Court and either placed him on probation or handed him a conditional discharge, rather than imposing a prison term and a fine. The punishment given by the Court of Magistrates would have lead to Goodlip losing his warrant to work as an auditor.

The lawyers of the accused asked the Court of Appeal to revoke the judgment handed to him by the Magistrates’ Court and to acquit the youth.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili signed the appeal.