Murder suspect Lawrence Abina allegedly told police he wanted to stop strangling the victim, but feared jail time if she survived the incident and reported him, a court heard on Friday. 

The trial of Lawrence Abina, who is accused of strangling Rita Ellul to death in an Għajnsielem apartment on February 26, 2022, continued with the jury hearing from more parties involved in the investigation. 

He is pleading not guilty to the charges. 

The court heard from police inspector Wayne Camilleri, who was involved in interrogating the accused on multiple occasions. 

Camilleri explained how during a second interrogation, where Abina confessed to police that he had killed Ellul, the accused had put out his hands and made gestures recreating how he had strangled the woman with his thumbs while she lay sleeping in bed. 

“He confessed that while he was strangling her, something inside him wanted to stop. In fact, he told us he couldn't look her in the eye and closed his eyes while doing it,” Camilleri said.

“He said that something inside him was telling him to stop, but he said that he knew this was a point of no return because if he had stopped and Rita was still alive, she would have reported him to the police and he would have ended up in jail.” 

Couple asked to move due to violent argument

Camilleri testified how he was one of the officers involved in Abina’s initial interrogation, during which he said he was not convinced that Abina was telling the whole truth about his relationship with Ellul. 

Camilleri said he confronted the accused with a domestic violence report that Ellul had filed against him in 2020, in which she alleged that it had not been the first time that Abina had physically harmed her. 

“According to him, he said that while she had reported him, there was nothing to worry about because she was going to drop the charges. He claimed that he still loved Ellul and had nothing to hide,” Camilleri said. 

A day after the initial interrogation, Camilleri said he also took a statement from one of Ellul's close friends - the same woman who was with her in Abina’s apartment the night before the murder. 

The woman told him that, for a short time, she had been Ellul and Abina’s landlord when they rented an apartment from her in Marsalforn. She had subsequently struck up a friendship with the victim. 

Camilleri said the woman told him she had once heard Ellul and Abina arguing while she was on the phone with the victim and heard the accused hurting her as Ellul called for help.  

This incident prompted the woman to ask the couple to move out of her apartment.

“She told me she feared that these arguments could escalate, perhaps even to homicide and that’s why she had asked them to move,” he said. 

Murder motivated by fake suitor 

The woman also told Camilleri that things between Ellul and the accused were not going well because she had found out that he was seeing other women and having sex with prostitutes. 

In response, Ellul had told Abina that a Maltese man named Stefan was messaging her constantly and asking her to meet, and had even gone to meet him a few times.

But, Camilleri continued, Ellul had told her friend that this Stefan character was a work of pure fiction and that she had made him up so that Abina would give her more attention. 

Camilleri then went on to describe how a second autopsy had confirmed the cause of death was murder and that, a day after, he received a call telling him that Abina had confessed to Ellul's murder while in police custody. 

On March 2, Camilleri described how he was involved in Abina’s second interrogation, during which he confirmed that he had previously confessed his guilt to Inspector Kurt Zahra and that it was he alone who had killed Ellul. 

“He told us he had been thinking about killing her from the day before... and when asked why, he said that when Ellul was having fun with her friend and his roommate it was the first time that he had seen her happy in a very long time,” Camilleri said. 

“Abina told us that Ellul was unhappy with him and they were arguing constantly.

"She knew he was having affairs and he also mentioned a man named Stefan. He said that Ellul told him about this Maltese man named Stefan whom she was considering leaving him for. Of course, Abina didn’t know that this Stefan didn’t exist. But he said that the main reason he wanted to kill Ellul was because of Stefan.” 

In cross-examination, the defence asked whether the police had investigated whether this Stefan person was truly fictitious or not. 

Camilleri replied that he had not inquired after this, although he had no information as to whether anybody else had. 

“So whether or not this Stefan is real is based on what you heard from Ellul's friend?” he asked, to which the reply was “yes”. 

Confession spilt over a cigarette 

The jury also heard from police inspector Ryan Farrugia, who was tasked with escorting Abina from the police lock-up to an interrogation room. 

It just so happened that during this walk, the two men passed from the smoking area, where Deputy Commissioner Sandro Gatt, who was an assistant commissioner at the time, was smoking a cigarette. 

Abina, not knowing he was speaking to a high-ranking officer, stopped and asked him for a cigarette. 

“I explained to him that the person he had asked for a cigarette was, at the time, an assistant commissioner, but in the meantime, DC Gatt had walked closer to us and was opening the cigarette packet to give him one,” Farrugia said. 

“While he was doing that, Gatt asked him how he was feeling and he said that he was feeling sorry for what happened. He started to cry, saying he had grabbed her by the neck and was putting out his arms to show us how. He got down on his knees and was in hysterics.” 

Farrugia said he and Gatt kept talking to the accused and trying to calm him down, and after settling him in a chair with some water, Farrugia informed his superiors of what had just transpired. 

The case continues on Saturday. 

Lawyers Kaylie Bonett, Anthony Vella and Nathaniel Falzon are prosecuting on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General.

Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace was appointed as Abina’s legal aid counsel.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri are appearing parte civile for the Ellul family