Eliott Paul Busuttil, who murdered a taxi driver while out on bail for attempting to kill another man has appealed the 42-year-jail term handed down earlier this month.

He claimed that the judge should have informed him that she would not adhere to the 35-year jail term agreed by the prosecution and the defence in exchange for a guilty plea. 

Busuttil noted that he ended up getting seven years more than he agreed during the sentence bargaining agreement, and he should have been allowed to reconsider his plea.

In the appeal application, filed by his lawyers Edward Gatt and Shaun Zammit, he said that Madame Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrara’s judgment sought to “please the gallery but did not a reflect a sense of justice.”

On March 5 Busuttil, 40 of Attard, was jailed for 42 years after he admitted to murdering Mario Farrugia, a 62-year-old taxi driver who was found dead in the trunk of his car in Qormi valley in April 2022, as well as the attempted murder of a second man, Emil Marinov.

At the time of the murder, Busuttil was out on bail for the attempted murder of the Bulgarian, who was found in Ta’ Qali in August 2020, after also being stabbed multiple times.

Marinov had contacted Busuttil over a Facebook Marketplace advert because he wanted to buy hi-fi equipment – and ended up being slashed 24 times with a butcher’s knife.

During the sentencing hearing, the judge noted that there was a sentence bargaining agreement between the Attorney General and the defence for a 35-year jail term after Busuttil pleaded guilty and was told about the legal consequences to his guilty plea.

Elliot Paul Busuttil was accused of stabbing his victim 40 times. Photo: Facebook

The judge noted she was not legally bound by the sentence bargaining if she felt this was not fair.

On handing down judgment the judge noted that Busuttil tried to kill an innocent man and then managed to kill another. He had learnt nothing from his previous convictions.

"The murder of Mario Farrugia was barbaric as, after he killed him, he hid the body in the boot of a car until he was found," she said.

"An innocent man went to buy a stereo and ended up badly injured. Emil, the attempted murder victim, had his head opened up like a book. The court can not accept this animalistic behaviour and the court has to protect society from such cold-blooded people who are ready do to this for €100 euro."

She jailed Busuttil for 42 years and ordered him to pay €70,000 in court costs in two years.

In the appeal the lawyers claimed that the judge should have informed the accused that she would not adhere to the agreed 35 years. A declaration in open court, that she was not legally obliged to adhere, was not enough.

The lawyers also noted that the judge had wrongly applied caselaw and had not taken into account the submissions on punishment made by both parties.

The lawyers noted that the sentence bargaining agreement was reached after lots of work between the parties and the prosecution had kept the victims’ lawyers informed.  

The court, they said, had too much discretion in such cases and had veered too far from the jail term agreed on by both parties. The jail term was “exaggerated”, they said as they called on the appeal court to declare the judgment null and send the case back to the first court.