A man suspected of murder was identified using CCTV footage from all across Malta and cross-referencing information gleaned from those images with location data from his phone, a court heard on Monday.

Elliot Paul Busuttil stands accused of murdering 62-year-old Mario Farrugia, whose badly decomposed body was found inside the boot of his taxi in Qormi in April.

Farrugia’s body was found inside the luggage boot of his Peugeot 407 model, days after being reported missing.

On Monday, a court heard from a digital expert who testified that police officers had sourced CCTV footage from over 50 cameras as they worked to track down the murder suspect.  

Keith Cutajar told the court that his work had focused on footage retrieved from 36 different localities including Attard, where Busuttil lived, the Msida skate park and Transport Malta. 

Those videos spanned the hours between the evening of March 28 and 6:00am the following day. 

Cutajar focused on the only leads he had to work with at the time - the victim’s white Peugeot vehicle and speed camera tickets issued that night. 

Every white vehicle driving through the areas of Attard, Mriehel, Santa Venera and Msida was tagged. Tagged footage was then analysed, and still images extracted.

A particular person, whom the witness identified in court as the accused, appeared to feature throughout that footage.

The police then proceeded to check Busuttil’s mobile phone data, triangulating information recorded by three or more antennae to accurately locate Busuttil’s mobile to within some 20 metres of a given point. 

When Busuttil was arrested, officers also found the mobile phone that Cutajar had used to carry out the triangulation exercise – a blue Samsung model that was password locked.

Cutajar told the court that he had managed to bypass the phone password and retrieved data from the phone. The data corroborated his findings based on data obtained from service providers and CCTV footage. 

The court expert said CCTV footage showed that the white Peugeot had done some “heavy driving” that night, moving from Busuttil’s home in Attard to the Msida skate park, stopping in Qormi along the way. 

The murder victim, Farrugia, was reportedly serving as Busuttil’s driver. 

Presenting his thick report in court, Cutajar also exhibited some 21 mobiles, tablets and other devices, as well as numerous SIM cards, all sealed in evidence bags.

Footage from police body cams at the time of Busuttil’s arrest was also examined by the expert.

Four experts from the forensic science laboratory presented a joint report detailing their work as scene of crime officers.

They were present at Triq il-Wied Qormi when a CID officer came along with the keys to the Peugeot vehicle and opened the boot, revealing the corpse inside. 

There was a reddish liquid dripping out and reddish marks on the metal work at the rear end of the vehicle. The corpse was photographed and fingerprints lifted.

Two days later, on April 7, the officers photographed the procedure during the autopsy, handing over the victim’s clothes to the DNA expert for testing.

A bag containing knives and scissors seized by police during their search, was also handed over for testing. 

The items were presented in court on Monday, sealed in evidence bags. 

The case continues.

Inspector Wayne Camilleri prosecuted, assisted by AG lawyers Kaylie Bonnett Maria Schembri.

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Ishmael Psaila are defence counsel.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri are appearing parte civile.