A man accused of murdering his partner by choking her to death inside an apartment in Gozo was “very jealous” and sometimes turned violent, a court heard on Tuesday.

Police sergeant Christian Xuereb told the court that the landlady of a property where Lawrence Abina and Rita Ellul lived was worried about Ellul’s safety and had once heard Abina “smash her head”.

“She told me that she was scared he was going to kill her [Ellul] and had therefore asked them to leave the property,” the sergeant told the court. The landlady recalled Ellul confiding in her that Abina could “lose control when he drinks beer”.

Abina, 30, is pleading not guilty to murdering Ellul on February 26. Ellul was found dead in her bed in an Għajnsielem apartment. An autopsy confirmed that she had been asphyxiated, most likely using a bed duvet.

A police inspector has testified that Abina confessed to the crime while under interrogation.

On Tuesday, sergeant Xuereb told the court about various witnesses that investigators had spoken to as they probed the case.

A friend of Abina’s told the police that Abina had shown up outside his house, crying, and told him that his girlfriend had died. Abina claimed that he had found her dead when he returned from work.

The court also heard that Abina was regularly unfaithful to Ellul, who wanted to end the relationship but found it hard to do so.

Text messages extracted from her phone showed conversations between the two in which they argued and discussed breaking things off.

“All that matters to you is sex,” Ellul told Abina in one exchange. In an audio recording dated May 2021, Ellul told Abina that she knew of his affairs but forgave him because she loved him.

While allegedly cheating on Ellul, Abina was reportedly extremely jealous and suspected Ellul of having affairs herself, the court heard, even threatening her in one 2019 message, telling her that he knew she was sleeping with somebody else and that something bad would happen to her.

Abina is represented by lawyer Joseph Grech. The prosecution is led by lawyers Anthony Vella and Nathanial Falzon and police inspectors Kurt Zahra, Josef Gauci and Wayne Camilleri.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Francesca Zarb are appearing on behalf of the victim’s family.