The daughter of murder victim Rita Ellul screamed "he surely murdered her" at the police when officers answered her dead mother’s phone at the crime scene, a court heard on Thursday.

The trial of Lawrence Abina, 32, who is accused of strangling Ellul to death in an Għajnsielem apartment on February 26, 2022, began on Thursday. He is pleading not guilty to the charges.

Ellul, a mother of three, had been in a turbulent relationship with the accused for four years.

During the compilation of evidence, a police inspector testified that during his second interrogation, Abina had allegedly broken down and confessed to the crime, describing in great detail how he had strangled Ellul until she lay lifeless.

Following the jury selection on Thursday morning, made up of six women and three men, Attorney General lawyer Kaylie Bonnet explained the narrative indictment to the members of the jury, saying that the prosecution believes it is right to prosecute Abina because there is compelling evidence that he committed “the mother of all crimes” -  wilful homicide.

She said that in the prosecution’s established timeline for the evening, Rita was last seen alive, the victim had been spending time at Abina’s flat with a female friend and his roommate.

Despite it being a somewhat jovial evening, Abina is said to have kept to himself. Later that evening, Abina and Ellul went to Mġarr to get something to eat and watched a horror movie on a mobile phone in a parked car. They then returned home, had sex and went to sleep.

The next day, Abina is said to have woken up, had breakfast with his roommate and got ready for work while Ellul was still asleep in their bed.

It is at this point, Bonnet said, when he would typically kiss Rita goodbye, that Abina climbed on top of her, “vigorously pressed his thumbs into her neck” and strangled her to death.

He then left and went to work. It was only after returning to his home after work that he claimed to have found Rita lifeless and called the 112 emergency number.

The incident had first been treated as a suspicious death but was elevated to murder when the cause of death was established through an autopsy.

While this is the story that Abina stuck with during his initial interrogation, on March 2, he broke down while speaking to the police and confessed that he was guilty and was feeling sorry for what happened, Bonnet said.

During this conversation, he allegedly described the murder in great detail, particularly how he put his hands around Rita’s neck and that his actions were motivated by jealousy.

In the interest of exonerating his roommate, he also allegedly told police that he was solely responsible for Rita’s death. The jury also heard from Police Inspector Josef Gauci, who went on site that Saturday morning to investigate what at the time he thought to be a report of a sudden death.

When he arrived at the apartment he found the victim lying lifeless in bed.

While he was there, Abina told him that Rita was his girlfriend and that this was his apartment that she sometimes lived with him in. Other times, she lived in Malta in an apartment in Lija.

Shortly after his arrival, Gauci said the roommate arrived on the scene, covered in what appeared to be construction dust.

The female friend who had been visiting Rita at the apartment the night before had also turned up at the scene of the crime.

While he was conducting his work in the apartment, Rita’s phone started to ring and Gauci answered it.

This turned out to be the victim’s daughter, whom he had to inform of her mother’s death.

This, he said, caused the woman to erupt into tears.

“She started screaming on the phone dak żgur qatilha, dak żgur qatilha (he surely killed her, he surely killed her),” Gauci said.

“She was referring to Abina because she knew her mother had been staying with him at the time. I told her we would have to wait until the autopsy results until we could know for sure.”

The case continues on Friday at 9am.

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.