A man accused of the gruesome murder of a taxi driver found inside a car trunk used to run a “crack den”, a court was told on Tuesday.  

Elliot Paul Busuttil, 38, stands accused of the murder of Mario Farrugia, whose heavily decomposed body was found dumped in the trunk of a car in Qormi in April. 

The victim was stabbed more than 40 times in what investigators believe was a frenzied attack, possibly fuelled by substance abuse.  

Busuttil, who is pleading not guilty to the crime, was back in court on Tuesday morning.  

The murder proceedings, being heard by magistrate Astrid May Grima, did not yield much in the way of new developments.  

The case started half an hour late, and when it finally got underway, only one witness was brought forward by the prosecution.  

That witness had previously earned herself a warning from the court after she testified that although she had known Busuttil for years, even visiting him at his family home on occasion, she did not know anything about him.  

On Tuesday, the court again raised concerns about the witness’s testimony reminding her that she was speaking under oath.

When her testimony resumed on Tuesday, the witness, a Romanian national, told the court she worked in a “gentleman’s club” in Paceville and knew Busuttil from there.  

The case was then adjourned and will continue on November 1.  

Busuttil was then whisked off to another sitting, this time before magistrate Elaine Mercieca.  

Magistrate Mercieca was told how in 2018 police had received information about the sale of crack cocaine from a garage in Buġibba.  

Inspector Godwin Scerri told the court that the “crack den” was located on Triq Mazzola and that multiple people had been seen coming and going in that area.  

A police officer was assigned to carry out surveillance of the area in plain clothes and after police felt confident that the place was in fact being used to sell and use drugs, a search warrant was obtained.  

During a search of the garage, Busuttil, who had been renting it from a third party, was arrested and cocaine, heroin, and marijuana were discovered hidden in a room being used as a bedroom.  

At this point, Busuttil’s lawyer, Ishmael Psaila, raised doubts over the chain of custody of the substances discovered at the garage.

He also questioned whether the police could prove the substances belonged to Busuttil, given that, as the prosecution had said itself, the garage was visited by many people.

The drug case will now continue on October 12.