Femicide victim Nicolette Ghirxi had agreed to take a risk assessment for domestic violence but told a friend and her lawyer that she was “talked out of it” by professionals when she attended her evaluation.
Evidence obtained by Times of Malta reveals that on April 22, Ghirxi was dissuaded from taking the risk assessment after it was suggested that the messages she received from her former boyfriend did not contain threats but insults.
It was then that Ghirxi walked out of the room without taking the risk assessment.
Ghirxi was found murdered in her Swatar apartment on August 12. Her ex-partner Edward Johnston was shot dead by police hours later.
Just a few hours after Ghirxi’s body was discovered, police commissioner Angelo Gafà told journalists that Ghirxi was offered a risk assessment but declined – in writing – saying she did not feel at risk.
The Foundation for Social Welfare Services told Times of Malta that the risk assessors on the day categorically denied they tried to talk out the victim at any point from carrying out the assessment.
The risk assessors in question have given a written statement to FSWS management and will be confirming it under oath through an affidavit.
“The FSWS stands by the version given by its professionals and would like to point out that that was the only time that the risk assessors or other FSWS professionals had any contact with the victim.”
I was with Nicolette at the police headquarters in Floriana while she was filing the domestic violence report. I was with her when she accepted to take the risk assessment- Victim's friend
But a close friend of the victim, whose identity is being withheld, begs to differ.
“I was with Nicolette at the police headquarters in Floriana while she was filing the domestic violence report. I was with her when she accepted to take the risk assessment.”
Speaking to Times of Malta, she says that neither friends nor relatives or lawyers are allowed to be present when victims of domestic violence take risk assessments and that is why she left after Ghirxi had filed her police report.
“I offered to wait for her outside but Nicolette told me to go home and said she would contact me once she’s done.”
The friend reveals how later that night on April 22, she received a voice note from Ghirxi describing how the risk assessor had harped on the futility of the exercise considering that the messages she had received from her former boyfriend contained insults, not threats.
In the voice note, in Maltese, heard by Times of Malta, Ghirxi said: “Ok just got home, erm... ir-report... m’għamilulix ir-risk assessment għax qalli m’hemmx theddid. Qalli insulti. Qalli ħa jiġi zero, kind of. Qalli però jekk ‘forsi jerġa’ jikkuntattjak u jagħmel harassments, kemm iċċemplilna u nerġgħu nagħmluh.’”
“Ok just got home, erm… the report… [he] didn’t do the risk assessment because he told me there are no threats but insults. He told me that [the assessment] would score zero, kind of. But he [the risk assessor] told me that ‘should he [the former boyfriend] contact you again and harass you, just call us and we’ll do it again.’”
The friend’s version of events is corroborated by the victim’s lawyer, Joseph Borda, who is clearly frustrated about the way things played out.
'A risk assessment should be made by default'
“The police have adopted a habit of asking the victims whether they want to take a risk assessment. This should be made by default,” he told Times of Malta.
Borda recalls his anger when Ghirxi informed him, over the phone that same night, how she had filed a domestic violence report without taking the risk assessment.
“At this point I ask myself whether Appoġġ are doing their duty or not,” he said.
Borda argues that this is why he will keep insisting on an independent inquiry that will show how the state has failed to protect Ghirxi.
This week, the government announced it had tasked the Police Complaints Board with assessing the implementation of the recommendations arising from the Valenzia inquiry report following Bernice Cassar’s death.
Cassar was killed by her estranged husband in November 2022. The Valenzia inquiry was published in February 2023.
The Office of the Prime Minister said the board will also review the conduct of the police force concerning established standard operating procedures and relevant legislation.
“Are we joking!”, Borda hit back, explaining that the PCB is limited in scope and can only review police conduct when other players are involved like Appoġġ, immigration authorities and the police’s Standard Operating Procedures.
“This goes beyond the police. I believe the state did not offer Nicolette enough protection and this can only be established through an independent inquiry with wider terms of reference that will enable it to look into the failings of the state.”
Ghirxi was murdered in the apartment Johnston once shared with her, which he left last December. After a three-hour stand-off with the police in St Julian’s, Johnston pointed a weapon at the officers which later turned out to be a replica gun. He was shot dead.
Nicolette Ghirxi was murdered in her Swatar apartment on August 12. Photo: Facebook'Way beyond the truth'
The victim’s friend recalls her anger when she heard the police commissioner say that Ghirxi had refused a risk assessment.
“This is way beyond the truth,” she insists.
She said Ghirxi had spoken to her about the content of e-mails and messages that Johnston had been sending her for a while.
Ghirxi blocked Johnston on all social media platforms but he became so obsessed with contacting her that he even sent her messages via PayPal, an online payment app on which messages are only allowed between users who transfer money.
“He sent her one cent via PayPal just to make sure that he could send her a message over that platform.”
The only other platform Johnston could use to message his former girlfriend directly was Gmail.
“Ghirxi reached out to Google and asked them to stop Johnston sending her e-mails but they said they could not do anything.”
She also described how on April 22, Ghirxi walked into the police headquarters in Floriana and proceeded to file a report against her former partner.
“I was with her. She handed the police 12 to 15 printouts of e-mails and messages she had been receiving and which she considered harassment.”
The session lasted for 45 minutes and the standard procedure was recorded.
“While filing the report, the police discussed whether some of those messages were harassment or contained threats. In the end, Nicolette was told the police would try to contact Johnston to get his version of events and then she was offered to take a risk assessment.”
Ghirxi accepted.
'Who are we to question their advice?'
Later that evening, Ghirxi would send her friend a voice note informing her she had not taken the risk assessment after all because she was told that “it would score zero”.
The friend remembers how Nicolette had taken the Appoġġ risk assessor to his word.
“They are the professionals. Who are we to question their advice?” she told Times of Malta.
“Just make an effort and put yourself in Nicolette’s shoes. She had already taken a very brave step to go there and file the report. A lot of doubts must have crossed her mind. And when a professional told her she was not at risk, she trusted him.”
Police at the scene of the crime. Photo: Matthew MirabelliIn the following weeks, Ghirxi became the target of several social media posts uploaded to Facebook and Instagram from fake social media profiles under the name of Ricardo Raspini and Lisa Campo.
These posts, which later transpired were being managed by Johnston, would seek to tarnish Ghirxi’s reputation by making allegations about her sexual behaviour and to get her into trouble with her employer.
Ghirxi also kept in touch with the police forwarding any such e-mails and messages that she received but, as far as is known, she never returned to file a second report in person or to take a risk assessment.
“The last time I met Nicolette was on Tuesday 6th August. She had just returned from a cruising holiday.”
The following Sunday she was murdered.