Updated 6.24pm

A judge presiding over a murder trial on Wednesday ordered the police to investigate three  witnesses after they changed the version of events they originally gave the inquiring magistrate, or now claimed they did not remember anything.

Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera first ordered the police to investigate Doris Pace for lying under oath.

Pace had taken the stand in the trial by jury against Kurt Grech,  31, known as in-Nemes, and his father Joseph, 61, both from Pieta.

They are pleading not guilty to the murder of 21-year-old Brandon Pace on April 2, 2017, in Giovanni Barbara Street, Ħamrun.

The two are charged with wilful homicide, unlawful possession of knives, breaching public peace and good order and threatening the victim’s mother, Lisa Pace and partner Jessica Bilocca.

Bilocca had a son from Kurt Grech. He alone was further charged with grievously injuring Bilocca with a knife.

The father is also charged with having threatened the victim's sister, Donna Pace, with a knife during the fight.

In her testimony, Doris Pace said she lived in the apartment below Brandon Pace.

On the day of the incident, she was inside watching television with her partner, when she heard shouting and went onto the balcony. She saw tiles coming down from the balcony above hers – Brandon Pace’s house.

Jessica Bilocca was throwing the tiles.

She said she saw Brandon Pace’s mother come out to calm matters.

“There was Kurt and his father on the road. They had come to fight. Kurt had a knife. Then Brandon came out in shorts and nothing in his hand. He approached Kurt and fell to the ground onto Kurt. He stood up immediately and it was a scene I will never forget. Brandon was covered in blood. He was limping and holding his side covered in blood.

"Then he walked into the flat and I saw nothing more as I went inside.”

She was reminded that, when she testified during the inquiry after the incident, she said she had not seen anything.

She said she must have been in shock.

Following several warnings, the judge ordered the police commissioner to investigate Doris Pace for perjury.

She also ordered that Doris Pace be held in custody until she was questioned by the police.

The Hamrun apartment block where the murder took place. File photo

Another witness received a similar warning from the judge.

Joseph Vella, an elderly man, said he lived on Giovanni Barbara Street in a ground-floor apartment within a housing estate.

On the day of the incident, he was at home when his dog started barking and he went outside to see what happened.

He saw the two accused who were shouting and challenging Brandon Pace to fight.

He tried to tell them to leave but they did not. Then Pace walked downstairs from his apartment.

“He came downstairs and [was stabbed] immediately. With knives. I saw three knives – two in the hands of the son and one in the father's hands.

“He fell to the ground immediately. Then they went down on top of him. I saw hands flailing up and down like a washing machine,” he said adding that Pace then walked to the front door of the apartment block.

“He ran to the door and was given the last blow. He was stabbed by the father. He then dropped dead in front of the door,” he said adding he did not see anything in the hands of Pace.

He also said did not recall seeing any of the two men being injured. Under cross-examination, defence lawyers reminded him that he had said he saw Pace carrying a knife in previous testimonies.

The judge noted that he had changed his version three times: when he testified during the inquiry he said Pace did not have a knife, during the compilation of evidence he said he did, and he was now saying he did not have a knife.

The court reminded him that, during the compilation of evidence, he said he saw Pace brandishing a knife and hit the young man, injuring him.

When asked which was the truth – whether or not Pace had a knife – he said he did not remember.

After several warnings, the court ordered that he be held in custody until he was called to testify again.

She warned him that he could be found guilty of perjury.

'I cannot remember anything'

When the trial continued in the afternoon, Melvin Debono, also known as il-Quws, took the stand and immediately said that he did not remember anything.

Madam Justice Scerri Herrera was quick to tell him off, pointing out that it was unacceptable to say that one would have forgotten everything.

Debono told the court, that at the time of the incident, he was driving through Hamrun to drop off his girlfriend Donna Pace - Brandon Pace’s sister - at her father’s place. He did not know of or see any altercation happening in the street.

This version of events, however, clashed with his previous testimony. The prosecution reminded him that, when he gave his testimony to the inquiring magistrate, he had said that when he drove by her father’s place, he spotted the fight and he and Donna had gone to see what was happening.

After hearing this, Debono told the court that he only dropped off Donna and he kept going.

The judge warned him that he could be found guilty of perjury, and ordered that he be held in custody until he was called to testify again later on.

When Debono was asked to testify again later, the judge read to him the testimony he gave after the murder took place.

He had told the inquiring magistrate: “I got out of the car to try to break up the fight.”

He had also said that he saw a woman and two men standing in the street, one woman on the balcony, and the victim on the ground, bleeding.

“Brandon got stabbed around four or five times,” Debono had recounted.  

As judge Scerri Herrera read out this testimony, Debono repeatedly said that he could not remember anything.

The court therefore ordered the police to investigate Debono for perjury, “as the witness seems to be suffering from amnesia.”

When Joseph Vella returned to the stand, he was reminded by Judge Scerri Herrera about his previous testimony where he said that Brandon Pace had a knife which he used to stab Kurt Grech. As she read out his previous testimony, Vella repeatedly said that he could not remember the details of the incident or whether he previously testified.

Hours earlier, Vella had told the court that Brandon Pace did not have a knife, but Kurt Grech was wielding two knives and Joseph Grech one. The defence pointed out how, in the morning, Vella presented a story, but now he was saying he could not remember anything.“I don’t remember what I said this morning,”  Vella said.

The judge ordered the police to investigate Vella for perjury.

Lawyers Kevin Valletta and Kaylie Bonett, from the Attorney General’s office, are prosecuting.

Lawyers Roberto Montalto, Katheleen Grima and Edward Gatt are defence counsel while lawyers Rachel Tua and Ishmael Psaila are representing the victim’s family.