Man threw girlfriend off balcony for two-timing him, court hears

A young man who threw his girlfriend off a third-floor balcony in Gozo after he could not tolerate her two-timing him before his very eyes, yesterday started facing a trial by jury on attempted murder charges.

Marco Zarb, 23, of Birkirkara stands charged with trying to kill Georgina Borg on June 24, 2001.

Prosecutor Dr Anthony Barbara told jurors that in June 2001, the accused and his girlfriend rented a flat at Marsalforn. On June 24, arguments escalated and he threw her off the balcony. The young woman did not die but suffered permanent disability.

Police Inspector Antonello Grech, who was one of the main investigating officers in the case, testified he had first spoken to the accused at around midnight in hospital and the accused told him he had known Borg for about four years but had been going out with her for only four months. Borg had an eight-month-old baby which was not his.

The accused initially said the victim had gone to fetch some clothes from the washing line but the inspector started growing suspicious when he spoke briefly to her before she was being transferred to the helicopter to be sent to St Luke's Hospital and although she could speak, she seemed reluctant to talk.

The officer said he went to see the flat from where the victim had fallen and noticed that the clothes were all packed and that there was only a pair of boxer shorts on a clothes rack in the balcony. The victim's mother told the police the accused and her daughter had had an argument.

The accused was then arrested. He initially denied he had pushed her off the balcony but as he was being escorted to the police headquarters in Malta for further questioning he said they had had an argument because while in Gozo, she had gone out with a Gozitan.

When questioned at the police headquarters, the accused had admitted in the presence of the witness and that of Police Inspector Jeffrey Cilia that he had dragged her from the bedroom to the balcony and pushed her over. She landed on her back and when he realised she was still alive he said "bad luck to me" and went down and tried to strangle her. But people turned up and he had to stop. He said he wanted to kill her because she had two-timed him and he loved her.

The witness said the accused told them that moments before he threw her over the balcony he wanted to make love to her but she refused.

The inspector then recounted details from the statement that the accused had given. He said the accused said the victim told him she wanted Simon, a Gozitan she had met.

"She knew him before and while we were in Gozo, she spoke to him several times, both face to face as well as on the phone, and even went out with him. When I asked her why she went out with him in my presence, she told me: 'That is what you deserve as you love me too much'," the accused told the police.

"Before we went into the flat on June 24, she was teasing me that she was going to leave me as soon as we returned to Malta and when we went into the flat I resolved to myself that I would kill her.

"First I thought about stabbing her in her sleep but did not want to see blood. Then I tried to strangle her and she realised and asked me what I was trying to do and I told her I was not doing anything and told her that I loved her.

"When she left the bed after she refused my advances, I was determined to kill her. She left the bed and started screaming as she tried to run out of the flat and I ran after her, grabbed her by her hands, took her to the balcony and pushed her over. But had the balcony door been closed, I would have given up," the police officer recounted, echoing what the accused had said.

Georgina Borg also testified yesterday, saying she had "an intense relationship" with the accused and that he started living with her some two weeks after they met.

She said she had been civilly married to a foreigner called Hasan, who lived in Birzebbuga, before meeting the accused, and was prepared to get a separation from Hasan so that "sometime" she would marry the accused.

But then she got fed up of Zarb as he was too aggressive while making love and used to pull her hair, which she disliked.

Borg said she wanted to go for a holiday with him in Gozo to make up and waited to cash her social assistance cheque before going there.

The witness said she was taking some monthly medication because of a medical condition and the accused knew about it. She described her turbulent relationship with Zarb and how he could not bear it that she wanted to leave him.

She described how she met a Gozitan called Joseph the day before she was allegedly thrown off the balcony by Zarb and how she lived with this Joseph for a year in Gozo after she was discharged from hospital following the balcony incident.

"That evening before the incident, I told Marco that we were not made for each other. I had refused his advances to make love and although I realised I was pregnant on the Thursday, when we went to Gozo, I did not tell him before the Sunday evening and told him that I would be raising the child on my own as I did not want to marry him," she said.

Borg said the seven-month-old baby she had at the time was from a foreigner and the accused "treated it as if it was his own". She never had any complaints about him except that he was too aggressive making love.

When she told him she would be breaking up with him and they returned to the flat, she wanted him to sleep on the sofa and she would sleep on the bed with the baby. But when she went to get a drink from the kitchen he followed her, grabbed her by the arms, pulled her towards the balcony and threw her down.

Borg said she was still undergoing treatment and last week she was told that she would remain wheelchair bound.

The case continues.

Dr Chris Cardona and Dr Chris Soler appeared for Zarb.