Former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi’s partner has explained in court how a string of abusive anonymous letters mailed to her home address drove her to paranoia and sleepless nights.

Flavia Borg Bonaci took the witness stand in proceedings against Joseph Mary Borg, a 71-year-old Valletta resident facing prosecution as the suspect behind the letters mailed to various politicians and public personalities.

Borg Bonaci said her ordeal began in July last year when the first letter landed in her letterbox.

“The first time, I got a great shock. Upon opening that letter, I sat down. I couldn’t believe the obscenity and ugliness of it all," she told the court.

Worse than the foul language was the fact that the letter had been sent to her home.

“So I became paranoid, thinking that someone was following me,” she said.

The first letter described her as “dirty” while the six or so letters that followed, contained insults targeting family members including her grandmother who had died.

The person who wrote those letters obviously “hated” her partner, Jason Azzopardi, who was a vociferous Opposition MP at the time, and so attacked her she said. 

“I was the only partner of a PN politician to be directly targeted,” Borg Bonaci told the court.

Before the trail of insulting letters started, the couple were targeted during a 50-minute television programme hosted by One TV presenter Karl Stagno Navarra.

“It was character assassination,” and then the letters followed, said the witness. She said the anonymous mail upset her so much that she got up at night to look out from the balcony for any possible prowler.

She was scared to open the letterbox and looked over her shoulder when out walking.

"This person knew everything about me, where I lived, my father’s shop and so on."- Flavia Borg Bonaci

The sender, she said, had referred to her family nickname, labeling her as “sewage” and “a whore” and even keeping track of the opening hours of her father’s shop.

“This person knew everything about me, where I lived, my father’s shop and so on,” said Borg Bonaci, adding that certain details appeared to indicate that whoever was writing those letters was a “Belti” (someone from Valletta) who knew her family background.

Asked whether she knew the accused, Borg Bonaci said that she did not know the man personally but identified him as someone who occasionally walked past her father’s shop.

She said that well aware of the negative effect of those letters, Jason Azzopardi had convinced her to throw them away.

“I only kept the first one….But I opened them and read them all,” the witness explained.

PN MP Karol Aquilina also testified at the sitting.

He too was targeted by three or so similar letters, all written in the same distinctive handwriting.

He said he usually received the letters in parliament or at PN headquarters and whenever fellow MPs were presented with similar mail, he would warn them, advising them to brace themselves against the offensive contents.

“‘Be prepared,’ I would caution,” he said.

The letters generally arrived in the wake of some reported public speech by the politician.

However, one of the letters made reference to a Sunday morning meeting when Aquilina, Azzopardi and MEP David Casa met at a Valletta café to discuss an upcoming court case.

Matters took a different turn when last August, an envelope written in the distinctive handwriting, landed in his home mailbox.

It was addressed to his brother, Robert, president of civil society NGO Repubblika, who lived nearby.

“I smelt something fishy,” said Aquilina.

And sure enough when his brother went over to his house and opened the envelope, it contained a letter that was “wicked in the most absolute manner,” naming him, his father and sister-in-law, as well as their children.

That letter troubled him because he never divulged his private address so as to safeguard his family.

He had kept the letters addressed to him.

“Didn’t you take them to the police? Weren’t you affected by them?”asked defence lawyer Henry Antoncich.

Aquilina said those letters had certainly affected him, but since there was a time when he was “unjustly charged” by the police, his relations with police authorities “were not so serene”.

“I’m still expecting an apology. It is still not forthcoming,” said Aquilina.

The suspect behind those letters was arrested in November, his home searched and various items seized, prosecuting Inspector Kurt Farrugia testified.

The offensive language and distinctive handwriting, particularly the way the letter ‘a’ was joined to cross the letter ‘t’, indicated a common hand.

Moreover, the sender signed off as “Ex PN” or “ex PN kunsillier,” explained Farrugia.

Under interrogation, Borg allegedly stated that he wanted to ‘attack’ the subjects of his letters because they did not share his political views.

The case continues in September.

Lawyers Henry Antoncich and Joseph Calleja are defence counsel. Lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia is parte civile.