A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend outside a Żabbar club in February had attended family therapy sessions with the woman one month before the fatal stabbing.
This fact came to light on Friday when a therapist from the clinic was testifying at the compilation of evidence against Justin Borg, facing prosecution over the murder of Chantelle Chetcuti on February 2.
The 34-year old mother-of-two had been playing a game of billiards at the St Patrick’s Club when Borg turned up, asking her to follow him outside for a chat.
Once outside, he allegedly stabbed the woman multiple times in the head and neck.
A while later, Borg turned himself in at police headquarters, clothes bloodstained, blood seeping from a wound on his hand and in a state of shock.
He is pleading not guilty to murder and also cocaine possession charges.
On Friday court heard how the estranged couple had enrolled for family therapy, attending three sessions between November 2019 and January 2020 and booking other sessions.
Borg’s mother, Rita, also took the witness stand on Friday, saying that the couple had been in a relationship for 16 years and she was aware that they had recently faced problems.
However, she was under the impression that the couple had not completely broken up, since Chetcuti would occasionally get back with her son.
Further questions by the prosecution were met with a request by the accused’s mother for the court to exempt her from proceeding with her testimony.
That request was duly upheld by the court.
Meanwhile, a pending request for bail had to be postponed since the last civilian witness, Dylan Meilak, to be summoned by the prosecution, had moved to Gozo and could not be escorted to court on Friday.
An officer from the Żabbar police station informed the court, presided over by magistrate Rachel Montebello, that he had only gotten to know about this when he visited the man’s family home on Friday morning.
Inspector Kurt Zahra prosecuted.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.
Lawyers Lara Dimitrijevic and Stephanie Caruana appeared parte civile.