'Hammer was in both our hands' - accused gives his version of wife’s injuries

A pensioner accused of trying to murder his late wife with a hammer told jurors on Thursday that she had threatened him first during an argument over €300, claiming she accidentally struck herself as the couple struggled over the weapon.

Emanuel Borg, 68, is pleading not guilty to attempting to murder his wife, Maria Dolores Borg, also known as Doris, and causing her grievous bodily harm at their Mellieħa farmhouse in November 2019.

The prosecution alleges Borg bludgeoned his wife with a hammer while she was asleep after a row over money and tensions in the couple’s relationship. Borg, however, gave jurors a different account, insisting the hammer was never solely in his hands.

Taking the stand in his own defence, Borg said he had returned home that morning after working in his fields, left his dirty clothes by the kitchen door and went to shower. After lunch, he said, he asked his wife for €300 to pay for works on an agricultural store where he kept vegetables before taking them to the farmers' market.

Borg told the court that his wife managed the couple’s money and would usually give him what he asked for. This time, he said, she refused, telling him he was not earning enough from selling produce at the farmers’ market.

According to Borg, a hammer that had been used for DIY work was on the kitchen counter. He claimed his wife grabbed it and told him she would “split his head open” with it instead of giving him the money.

He said he caught hold of the handle, but she pulled it back and hit herself in the face. The pair continued struggling over the hammer, Borg claimed, with both of them holding it. He said she was struck again during the struggle, including once at the back of the head.

“The hammer was in both our hands, not only mine,” he told the jury, insisting the incident unfolded within seconds.

Borg said he panicked when he saw blood and called for an ambulance. He claimed his wife initially told him she was “not too bad” but felt dizzy. He said he stepped outside several times to look for the ambulance and later found her lying on the floor.

The court previously heard that shortly after the incident, Borg approached police officers in the rain and repeatedly asked them to arrest him. Police have testified that he told officers he had beaten his wife.

Borg told jurors he was taken to the Mellieħa police station and later accompanied officers back to the farmhouse. He said he saw his daughter cleaning blood from the floor and claimed a police sergeant asked him to help retrieve the hammer from the swimming pool using a fishing net.

Asked how the hammer ended up in the pool if he had left it in the kitchen, Borg said he did not know and suggested someone else could have thrown it there.

He also told the court he had not signed his police statement because he disagreed with the version being put to him.

Earlier in the trial, forensic doctor Mario Scerri told jurors that Maria Dolores Borg suffered serious injuries consistent with blunt force trauma. He said she was conscious and aware of where she was and who she was when he examined her at the farmhouse, but she was not oriented in time and could not remember what had happened.

Scerri described lacerations to her upper lip, mouth area and under the right nostril, a haematoma around her right eye, a nasal bone fracture, facial fractures and a depression fracture to the frontal bone.

The injuries were consistent with blows from a blunt object rather than a sharp instrument, he said. Asked how many blows she may have suffered, Scerri said there could have been several impacts to the nose, mouth and head.

He described her condition at the time as serious, although she remained stable in the days that followed. When he examined her again in January 2020, she was responding coherently and correctly to questions, but had been left with visible scarring.

Maria Dolores Borg later died from complications during surgery for an unrelated condition.

During his testimony, Borg also spoke about his mental health, saying he had suffered from depression for years. He said his condition worsened after he was wrongly blamed for an incident involving birds at the Għadira nature reserve, where he had worked as a watchman.

He said he had been treated by a psychiatrist since then and was taking a heavy dose of medication, including several tablets in the morning and at night.

Borg described his marriage of around 40 years as “not bad”, although he acknowledged that he and his wife argued occasionally, slept in separate beds and that she had sometimes told him she no longer loved him and wished they had divorced.

Under cross-examination, prosecutors pressed Borg on differences between his testimony in court and the statement he gave police after the incident. Borg said his wife had become irritable and sharp-tongued, and admitted he was “a bit angry” because she had refused to give him the money.

The trial continues before Madame Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera.

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Justine Brincat are prosecuting on behalf of the Attorney General. Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Lennox Vella are appearing for Borg.