Updated 6.44pm

The judge presiding over the trial of the murder of Sion Grech warned on Friday no one should communicate with him or the jurors, after he received two emails making comments about one of the accused.

Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja said he had informed President George Vella about two emails sent to his official address from a government domain.

He first informed the parties in the case of the trial of Ismael Habesh and Faical Mohouachi that he had received an email at 10.12am following a morning break, just before the jurors were summoned back into the hall. He received a second email sometime later. 

The judge said the sender, who was identifiable, stated facts linked to the trial and also made comments about one of the accused. 

He said he was bound in terms of article 10 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure to communicate the information to the President of the Republic. 

He warned that the information ought to have been sent to the prosecuting officers, namely the police or the Attorney General, adding that no person could communicate either with the Jjudge or with the jurors. 

Habesh and Mohouachi are currently on trial for the murder of Grech in 2005. 

Her badly decomposed body had been found in a field full of marigolds close to the HSBC bank branch in Marsa. She had been stabbed more than 17 times in the neck and chest.

The two men were first questioned within days of the gruesome discovery, but they were only charged with the crime in 2013.

Trial enters fifth day

On Friday a witness recalled the day she last spoke to the victim, who told her about an argument she had just had with a client after they refused to pay in advance for her sexual services.

That argument resulted in a bite on the victim’s hand, which the witness had spotted and inquired about.

Later that night Grace Cini spotted Grech just as she was going into the former Tiger Bar, which was one of the spots in that area of Marsa where the women used to loiter. 

“She was near the door, facing out and smoking.”

That was the last time Cini saw the victim. 

Later that evening, Cini also saw Habesh in a red Ford Escort. 

When asked about his behaviour, the witness said he was alone and it was dark, however, he appeared “normal".

Cini said she knew Grech on a “hello-goodbye basis" and spoke to Habesh “mainly about drugs”.

Asked to elaborate, the woman explained, “it’s like going to the butcher. You ask what meat there is, is it good and so on… It’s junkie talk,” said Cini, adding that it was “not a good life.”

She had stopped going to Marsa a few months after the murder. 

“But not because of what had happened to Sion. I had always wanted to break away,” explained the witness. 

Asked whether Grech had ever had a relationship with anyone else other than Habesh, Cini said that Sion “spoke to everyone but never had a relationship with anyone. I couldn’t tell that she had a relationship with him, because they never did anything in public”. 

Also on Friday, a former scene-of-crime officer, who had photographed and preserved evidence following the grim discovery of the body on April 13, 2005, gave a detailed description of his work. 

A white pair of pointed stiletto-heeled shoes were exhibited in court and shown to the jurors. The size 39 shoes had been found in the first part of a passageway in a field where the badly decomposed corpse had been found. 

Face upwards, one hand raised above her head, the victim lay on the ground in an advanced state of decomposition. 

Former sergeant Robert Scicluna recalled the maggots, flies and stench around the body. 

Wearing a blue denim skirt, beige wrap-over top, brown leather jacket, black bra and red underpants, the victim held a blue gas lighter in her left hand, splattered with blood.

Three condoms in sealed silver wrappers lay close by, together with a pink Panasonic mobile. A two-dot green and white marbled domino was found under the body and a 50-cent coin was lifted from the grass next to the victim’s left palm. 

Later that evening, the expert also photographed the autopsy. 

Grech’s father was the one who identified the victim from the tattoos on her back. 

During the post-mortem procedure, the expert noted defence wounds and a broken fingernail on the victim’s right hand.

A bellybutton stud, three rings she was wearing, 50-cent coins in a body bag, a €20 note and a Lm5 note that had been stuffed inside the victim’s bra were all preserved and handed to other experts for further forensic tests. 

Each of the items, together with samples of nail clippings and another from the victim’s hair, were all exhibited to the jury. 

Forensic scientist testifies

When the trial resumed on Friday afternoon, forensic scientist Robert Cardona testified about items of clothing worn by Grech that he had analysed. 

The leather jacket, long-sleeved top with darkened blood stains, skirt and underwear were individually exhibited and shown to the jury. 

The lengthy process involved court officials retrieving each item from sealed brown paper bags and showing them to the attentive jurors, while the expert gave an explanation of the scientific findings. 

The size 38 jacket had multiple tears and blood on the inner lining. The wrap over top was also torn and bloodstained. Both jacket and top were worm-eaten and had tears that varied in size.

Laboratory analysis confirmed that the swabs contained human blood.

However, the blood group could not be determined, possibly because the blood was ‘denatured’ through a lapse of time and environmental conditions. 

A blood sample was also elevated from the low wall that separated the field where the corpse was found and Triq is-Salib, Marsa. That sample was forwarded for DNA testing.

A bone marrow sample was taken from the victim and sent for forensic tests abroad. 

A pair of trainers and a marine black-handled knife seized during the murder investigations and handed over to forensic experts by former police investigator Silvio Valletta were also exhibited.

A glove taken from Habesh’s home was also tested.

When asked by the defence, the witness confirmed that Habesh had cooperated and consented to have his mouth swabbed. 

The trial continues on Monday. 

AG lawyers Anthony Vella and Abigail Caruana Vella are prosecuting. 

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Ishmael Psaila are counsel to Habesh.

Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace is counsel to Mahouachi.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto is appearing parte civile.