British tourists avoid jail after brutal glassing of cocktail bar staff in Mallorca

Two British tourists accused of attacking three people including a female cocktail bar worker in a horror glassing caught on CCTV have been convicted of wounding.

Tommy Colm Witty, 24, and Alexander Lee Anderson, 33, had been warned they faced up to ten years in jail each if convicted as charged ahead of their trial in the Mallorcan capital Palma yesterday.

But the pair ended up agreeing a last-minute plea bargain deal over the incident at Iroko Mallorca, an upmarket restaurant and cocktail bar in Palmanova near Magaluf.

Witty, who had been held on remand in prison since the early-hours attack on June 22 last year, was handed a two year suspended prison sentence and Anderson escaped with a 720 euros fine.

A four-page indictment released by public prosecutors before yesterday’s hearing at the Provincial Court of Palma said Witty, Anderson and two other “unidentified people” turned violent after the woman worker refused to serve them more drinks.

The indictment stated: “They told her in an aggressive tone: “S##k my d##k” and touched their private parts, with a row starting in which both the accused, with the intention of undermining her physical integrity, pushed her and she fell to the floor and hit her head on the ground and received cuts to her leg with broken glass.”

A male colleague who intervened was hit on the back of the head with a glass.

A second man believed to be another customer suffered neck and hand wounds after an attempt to throw a glass at him ended with it breaking as he put his arm up to protect his face, according to the indictment.

CCTV footage made public at the time showed the vicious assault in the packed bar restaurant, with Witty identified as the man responsible for the glass attack.

All three victims needed medical treatment for their injuries and had to have stitches, with the two employees forced to take time off work.

The two Brits also agreed to pay the trio a four-figure compensation settlement as part of the plea bargain deal.

The lenient punishments they received were decided on the basis of their guilty pleas and the fact they had handed over cash to the court ahead of yesterday’s hearing so their victims could be properly compensated.

The holidaymakers were initially arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide over the violent 2am altercation before being charged with three counts of wounding.

A spokesman for the Guardia Civil said after they were held last year: “Two people aged 24 and 33 have been arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide, wounding and causing serious public disorder following an incident at a nightspot in Palmanova.

“Officers sent to Mallorca as part of summer reinforcements were carrying out routine security patrols when they were alerted a mass fight was occurring in a premises near to where they were.

“They saw a man covered in blood who was brandishing a broken bottle who was attacking others present.

“They quickly reduced him and got the broken bottle off him.

“Staff said he, his companion and two others who had fled the scene had attacked employees and two strangers.

“The officers requested medical backup so they could assist the three people who had been hurt.

“Given the depth of their wounds and the fact they affected vital areas, they were transferred to Son Espases Hospital in Palma where they were given stitches to open wounds in their neck, head, arms and legs.

“The blood-covered man, who was the 24-year-old, was arrested along with his 33-year-old companion.”

The incident happened days after the first footage emerged of a Magaluf doorman leaving another British tourist on the ground with a flurry of punches after reacting to being bottled in a separate incident.

CCTV footage showed the Lithuanian bouncer exploding and using his fists to defend himself in the packed nightspot before bringing his hand to his blood-covered face and neck.

The 34-year-old was left with a gash wound needing 20 stitches according to public prosecutors, although local reports put the number of stitches at 50.

Prosecutors later demanded a five-year prison sentence for Max Barnes, 25, who was held on an international arrest warrant after being bailed and going AWOL following the attack.

The Brit, 19 at the time of the early-hours incident on July 31 2019, claimed after his arrest that he had acted in self-defence by responding to a previous assault.

But in June last year he was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence after admitting the unprovoked attack at The Plaza bar at the end of Magaluf’s bustling Punta Ballena strip as part of a plea bargain deal.

Barnes, who had already paid his victim nearly 40,000 euros in compensation, admitted his guilt in a trial where he spoke briefly via videoconference.

In November 2023 a British soldier prosecuted over a glass attack on her holiday friend in a Magaluf nightclub escaped prison and was let off with an 800 euros fine.

Bus driver’s daughter Sydney Cole was arrested when her Scots-born Lance Corporal pal Sarah Garrity was left in intensive care after losing four pints of blood and needing 14 stitches to a neck wound.

She was warned initially she could be jailed for three years after being charged with a crime of wounding by Spanish state prosecutors despite her victim’s refusal to press charges.

Cole, serving in the Adjutant General’s Corps based at Fort George Barracks in Inverness when the horror incident happened on April 15 2019, avoided prison after confessing to hurting Sarah as part of a plea bargain deal.

Irvine, Ayrshire-born Sarah, who was serving in the Royal Logistics Corps when she was critically injured, triggered the early release of Cole from prison days after her arrest and preventative remand in custody after telling police and court officials she did not want to press charges.

Prosecutors decided to continue trying to build a case against the accused woman after witnesses told police the attacker threw a glass directly at Sarah’s neck during a row at Magaluf’s Banana’s nightclub following an all-day drinking session.

Cole initially insisted after her arrest her holiday pal was hurt in an accident when she threw the glass on the floor during the fight with her and shards from it hit Sarah in the neck before striking her plea bargain deal.