The use of firearms for murders has been constantly on the increase, with guns being used for more than a third of murders in the last five years, up from a quarter in the previous five, according to crime historian Eddie Attard.
The three homicides in 2023, however – two women and a man were killed – did not involve the use of a firearm, while a shotgun was used in the first murder of 2024.
Attard, a former police officer, said that with three murders in 2023, Malta still has among the lowest homicide rates and is one of only a handful of countries where no murders took place in a particular year.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, there have been two years, 2003 and 2006, when no homicides occured.
However, while in the past one woman was killed for every two men, that trend is now reversed: there were years when more women were killed than men, or the number of women killed was equal to that of men.
Since 2019, Malta has had 23 homicides. In approximately 70% of the cases, the victim or the accused person was a foreigner.
The first homicide of 2023 took place on January 18 when Pelin Kaya was walking in front of the Paul and Rocco service station in Gżira when a BMW S6 driven by Jeremie Camilleri, veered sideways, hitting her and the petrol station before crashing into a fast-food restaurant.
Kaya, a 30-year-old interior designer originally from Turkey, had been on her way to meet her boyfriend after celebrating her 30th birthday with friends. She was taken to Mater Dei Hospital but died sometime later.
Footage had captured the moment of impact as well as the driver getting out and flinging stones at the victim as she lay on the pavement, motionless.
Camilleri is pleading not guilty to her murder.
The murder is one of just four in Malta's criminal history that was allegedly carried out voluntarily using a vehicle, Attard noted.
Almost nine months later – on October 15 – Malta witnessed the double murder of a couple from Marsa.
A 34-year-old Ghanaian national, Iddrisu Faisal, is pleading not guilty to the murder of his landlords Joe Bartolo and his partner, Carmen Abela. They were both stabbed to death inside their residence along Triq it-Tiġrija, in Marsa. A bolt cutter is believed to have been used.
Faisal was seen walking away from the crime scene, bare-chested, carrying a long metal object, raising his arms while shouting ‘Allahu akbar’, it emerged in court.
Faisal also stands charged with attempted murder and grievous bodily harm in respect of a brother and sister who were renting rooms at the former horse-riding school where the murders took place.
During the compilation of evidence against Faisal, the court heard two other co-tenants testify about how Bartolo regretted taking in Faisal as a tenant after rent-related arguments repeatedly broke out between them.
Matters came to a head on that Sunday morning.
A neighbour cleaning out bird cages on the roof of his residence across the street from the Marsa stables had reported hearing screams. He saw a Black man banging with all his might on the farmhouse door with a long metal object.