A Qawra bar owner facing murder charges told police that the alleged victim had lit up a joint inside his bar, picked on him and then coughed into his drink. 

David Busuttil, the 59-year-old owner of Munchies pub, stands accused of having killed Roger Dudley-Ward, 60, by shoving him down steps at the Qawra bar in the early hours of Friday morning on June 17.  

Medics found Dudley-Ward covered in blood and unable to speak, lying on a pavement at Triq it-Turisti, Qawra, just outside the pub.

His friend, London-born Shane Eagle told medics that someone had kicked the victim because he had coughed onto his drink and that Dudley-Ward had fallen backwards down the pub steps. 

The pavement was splattered with a “reddish liquid” and there were stained tissues scattered about, recalled a police sergeant from the Qawra police station when testifying on Monday.

He tried to get in touch with the bar owner, who at the time was not viewed as a suspect but simply as an informant who could shed light about the incident.

Busuttil turned up at the police station at 5.15am and was advised to contact a lawyer. He then spoke to a legal aid lawyer who was on duty at that time. 

Then he recounted how Dudley-Ward had needled him about his ex and also lit a joint inside the bar.

The argument reached a head when Dudley-Ward began to cough into Busuttil’s drink.

Busuttil reacted by splashing his drink onto Dudley-Ward who, in turn, flung a beer can in Busuttil’s direction. 

That can was later identified by the accused when he accompanied investigators to the bar later that same morning, before the place was sealed by police as a crime scene. 

It all happened suddenly, Busuttil allegedly told police.

“I pushed him slightly and he ended up at the steps,” (Imbuttajtu naqra u Madonna sab it-taraġ), the suspect said. 

As Busuttil spoke to the police, news reached the station that Dudley-Ward had died. 

Noticing some reddish spots on the white t-shirt Busuttil was wearing, the officer asked him to remove that item of clothing and placed it into a bag for forensic testing. 

Investigators also spoke to a third party who had installed CCTV cameras at the bar and whom Busuttil had allegedly tried to contact on the night after the incident. 

Police later spoke to the victim’s friend, Eagle, who gave them his version of the fight.

Eagle said that his friend was kicked backwards as he bent down to pick up his mobile phone, which had fallen during the scuffle.

“Roger is a pacifist and got confused [when David flung his drink at him] and did nothing,” Eagle allegedly told police, handing them his friend’s phone which he had kept after the victim was rushed to hospital.

The accused’s own mobile was presented in court today by an officer from the Homicide Squad who explained that the device had been placed in a sealed evidence bag, signed by police and countersigned by Busuttil, and kept “under lock and key” in police custody. 

The case, presided over by magistrate Doreen Clarke, continues in September.

Busuttil was granted bail in an earlier sitting. 

Inspector Shawn Pawney prosecuted, assisted by AG lawyers.Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri are defence counsel.