Jurors to start deliberating

Jurors in a double murder trial are expected to start deliberating the verdict this morning after the judge sums up the case.

The jurors will have to decide whether Alfred Azzopardi, 47, of Zejtun, can be found guilty or not of fatally stabbing 22-year-old Vanessa Grech and her 17-month-old daughter Ailey with a penknife in a rented Birzebbuga house on November 12, 2001 and to hiding the bodies when he threw them down a well in the same house.

Mr Azzopardi, who is pleading not guilty to the charges, took the witness stand before Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono on Tuesday. He told jurors he never intended to kill the woman and her child but had lost his mind when Ms Grech assaulted him with a penknife following an argument during which she insisted he give her Lm1,000.

He claimed he did not remember anything about what had happened after Ms Grech hit him on the hand with the knife as "a dark cloud" fell over him as he tried to snatch the knife from her. Mr Azzopardi's defence counsel, Malcolm Mifsud, told jurors he was not claiming his client had not committed the crime. He was maintaining he did not commit the crime as charged, in that Mr Azzopardi was in a state of mental agitation and instantaneous passion after having been provoked at the time of the commission of the crime.

Senior Counsel to the Republic Mark Said argued that the evidence showed that Mr Azzopardi was aware of his actions at the time and nothing could excuse the fact that he had killed a mother and her child.