A man who allegedly threatened to shoot his daughter and two other minors when family tensions bubbled over on Easter Sunday suspected his estranged wife was having a relationship with the natural father of their foster daughter.

Details of that violent incident and the events leading up to it began to emerge on Friday when the 15-year-old girl, long-fostered by the Għargħur couple, gave a first-hand account of that episode which landed the 37-year-old man, whom she looked upon as her father, in custody. 

She said that she always got along well with the accused who would tell her off when she did not do her homework, or disobeyed or answered back.

Trouble brewed when the girl told her mother, the accused’s wife, that she wished to spend some time on Easter Sunday with the man she believed to be her natural father.

The girl apparently first got to know the identity of her natural parent when the man himself approached her foster mother and expressed his wish to meet his offspring.

Witness says accused wanted her to choose between him and natural father

But until DNA tests proved their biological link, the minor was told by Appoġġ that she could only meet the man in the presence of an adult, explained the girl as she testified via video conferencing while the accused followed on the monitor inside Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo’s courtroom.

The girl recounted how the accused was forcing her to choose between him and her natural father and spoke of the problems her foster parents were currently going through.

Matters escalated on that Easter Sunday, she said.  

Although her mother was reluctant to meet up with the girl’s natural father, knowing her husband would react badly, she finally gave in and they met the man at a Sliema restaurant.

The girl said that the accused suspected that her mother was having an affair with her natural father.

While there, the accused phoned, wanting to know their whereabouts.

Back home, the accused was angry and although she did not see him consume alcohol, he was a different person when he drank and he did “behave very badly”.

After taking away her mother’s mobile and ordering her out, he also ordered his foster daughter out, grabbing her by the hair, hitting her head against a wardrobe.

As she searched for her specs on the floor, the accused kicked her on the side of her abdomen until she finally slipped away in her pyjamas, out into the common area of the block. 

Girls escape outside but are ordered back in

Her 15-year-old cousin, who also happened to be staying with them that day, soon followed and the two rushed outside into an alley.

But the accused tracked them down and ordered them back indoors.

As her cousin rushed upstairs to the penthouse, the angry man banged the witness’s head against the marble doorway and then left.

Soon her father returned with a “small, black revolver” in hand, “like those used by police,” explained the girl.

While the girls waited in fear, the man loaded the weapon and phoned his wife, ordering her back.

“You have one minute, or else I’ll kill the kids and then myself,” he allegedly threatened.

He put the gun against his head, then slammed it on the table, going out to the balcony and back, ordering his foster daughter, “go to your room. I don’t want to see you”.

When her cousin spotted the RIU patrol outside, she rushed to safety.

The witness ran to her sister’s bedroom, grabbed the autistic 10-year old and tugged at her arm to lead her outside, seizing the moment her father rushed to another apartment where the family stored their personal possessions.

That was where the accused kept his weapons, as well as his hunting gear and camping equipment, the girl testified.

Asked by parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi, the girl said that she had seen the accused load the gun with bullets during the scene upstairs. 

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Franco Debono the girl could not tell whether her mother had allegedly assaulted the accused on Good Friday.

“I don’t know. I went out with my friends so I don’t know.”

Did her mother ask her to go with her to the police station to file a report, pressed on Debono.

“I don’t remember,” the girl replied, somewhat hesitantly. 

The case continues next week.

Inspector John Spiteri prosecuted. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi is also defence counsell.