A Maltese business owner asked his employee to find him a hitman to murder his estranged wife, the employee has claimed under oath.
The worker says his former boss was willing to pay thousands to have someone strangle his wife while she slept at home.
He also declared that the husband had installed equipment both inside and outside her apartment to monitor her movements and record her conversations.
The alleged plot was revealed in court by a foreign worker in Malta, who said that his Maltese boss repeatedly pressured him to arrange for a killer to strangle his foreign-born wife in her bed.
The disturbing details emerge from court documents accessed by Times of Malta nearly a month after the murder of Nicolette Ghirxi, who was stabbed to death by her former partner on August 8.
The names of the parties involved in the alleged murder plot are being withheld on legal advice, but the wife’s lawyers want the details published, claiming it shows police inaction in cases of domestic violence.
The couple married in 2005 but separated after 13 years of marriage.
He thought I could easily find someone to kill his wife
The worker, a skilled tradesman, was originally hired to work for the Maltese family business, located in the south of Malta, at the end of 2017.
He told the court that his boss had approached him to help him kill his wife after learning that the worker’s brother was in prison in their native country.
The Maltese man allegedly believed this connection would enable his employee to source a hitman.
“He thought I could easily find someone to kill his wife because of my brother’s situation… He even drew a plan showing how the hit should be done,” the employee said.
A €10,000 hit
According to the testimony, the businessman plotted to have his wife suffocated at 3am, ensuring their young daughter would not witness the crime.
He allegedly promised his employee €10,000 to facilitate the killing and asked him to bring the hitman to a seaside town in the east of the island, where he would stay for two weeks before returning home after completing the job.
Despite the pressure, the employee never followed through with the plan, and he eventually provided police with the conversations and plans that his boss had shared with him.
The woman reported the claim to the police’s Gender-Based Domestic Violence Unit on March 11, 2021, after receiving a WhatsApp voice call and voice notes from the former employee, who by then had gone back to his country of origin.
The former employee then returned to Malta last November to testify under oath.
Man spied on wife - and beat her
Last January, fielding questions from the woman’s lawyer in court, a police inspector testified that she had spoken to CID investigators about the claim that her husband was plotting to kill her.
In addition to the murder plot, the court heard how the husband had beaten the wife, with one particular incident leading to his arrest in March 2019.
The husband had also installed surveillance equipment in their home, including a hidden camera and a microphone, which he used to spy on his wife’s conversations.
The witness testified that he was asked to help conceal the recording devices and translate the woman’s conversations from her native language, in which he was fluent.
I felt I had to speak up
The witness remained silent about the murder plot until he received an e-mail from the woman, at which point he decided to report the case.
“I felt I had to speak up and tell everything that had happened,” he said in court, aided by a translator.
He also forwarded his communications with his former employer to the police.
In her recent decree, the inquiring magistrate ordered the police to further investigate the matter but despite a lengthy inquiry into the case, the court ruled there was insufficient prima facie evidence to confirm that a crime had been committed.
Timeline of a murder plot
The couple were married in 2005 and had three children but were legally separated in 2018.
During the latter stages of their relationship, over a period of months, the woman filed a series of reports against her husband but decided not to proceed to protect her family.
The youngest of the couple’s three children lived with the mother for a while. The other two lived with the maternal grandmother.
March 7, 2019: The woman filed a domestic violence report at a police station where she accused her estranged husband of harassment. She scored high on a risk assessment carried out by Appoġġ professionals. As per procedure, her husband was arrested, charged in court the day after and placed on police bail.
March 11, 2021: At 6am, the woman received a WhatsApp call from an Eastern European city. The man on the other end of the line, whom she recognised, informed her how her husband had, in the previous months, conspired to kill her.
In one Whatsapp voice message, her husband’s former employee warned her that “he said that you must be killed, by the killer, he said to me a lot”.
In another, he said that “[he] always has been offering, let a man come from the [country], so he will pay forty or fifty thousand for you, to eliminate you. All apartments will be his, you will have nothing.”
A third message disclosed how “your husband said he placed video cameras on the street to hear everything, who came and who left from you. He placed the cameras on the street and on cars.”
Later that day, the woman lodged a report at the Gender Based Domestic Violence Unit, claiming her husband had plotted her murder.
Following this report, the woman took another risk assessment carried out by Appoġġ which again scored high.
It is understood that at this point the police opened an investigation. The woman spoke to CID inspectors but five-and-a-half months later, evidence was yet to be gathered.
August 31, 2021: The victim filed a report with Magistrate Ian Farrugia stating that her life was in danger because her estranged husband wanted to kill her. According to her testimony, a former employee had revealed to her that her husband had pressured him to hire a hitman to kill her.
The woman provided the court with recordings in which the witness explained the husband’s plan. She further testified that her husband had spied on her for some time, installing surveillance equipment in their home. She discovered one of the hidden cameras herself.
She also said she had been informed about a hole in the ceiling that had been dug by her husband to install additional recording devices.
The witness would later say in court that he had been asked by the husband to cover up the hole with a tile. According to him, the husband used recording devices, including an outdoor camera opposite the wife’s apartment, to monitor her movements and conversations.
In her report, the woman said this formed part of what she described as a pattern of harassment and abuse.
September 14, 2021: Magistrate Farrugia ruled that there were sufficient grounds to continue the investigation into the woman’s claims. This included investigating potential crimes such as violation of private property, harassment, stalking, conspiracy and voluntary homicide.
September 30, 2021: The husband responded to these developments with a legal challenge, filing an application by which he sought to dismiss the charges brought by his wife, arguing that no criminal offence had occurred.
During the next 19 months, the criminal court heard several witnesses. A psychological evaluation of the woman was carried out by court experts.
April 27, 2023: The court dismissed the husband’s appeal, affirming there was enough preliminary evidence to warrant further inquiry into the allegations. The court noted that the offences described, particularly the murder plot, would carry a prison sentence exceeding three years if proven. The court concluded that the elements of the crime, as described by the woman, should be preserved for further investigation.
October 11, 2023: The Court Registrar assigned the case to an inquiring magistrate who proceeded with the appointment of experts and the collection of forensic evidence. This included the extraction of relevant digital evidence from the woman’s mobile phone and laptop, including videos, audios, WhatsApp messages and e-mails. The court also appointed a media company to photograph the surveillance equipment found in the house, including the hole in the ceiling where the woman had discovered wires and cameras.
Additionally, an IT expert was assigned to inspect the husband’s laptop, which was in police custody. This review was conducted under the supervision of a police inspector, and any relevant materials were to be preserved and presented in court.
Over the next few months, reports were submitted to the court. But key to the whole case was the testimony given by the witness in court on November 23, 2023.
That same day, representatives of the media company returned with photographic evidence, confirming they had documented the surveillance set-up.
January 9, 2024: The digital forensic report was presented, while the IT report, detailing the contents of the husband’s laptop, was delivered on April 5.
May 6, 2024: The inquiring magistrate concluded that there was still insufficient evidence to establish, prima facie, that a criminal offence had occurred.
While the woman had described serious incidents of stalking and harassment, and the installation of surveillance equipment had been confirmed, the magistrate found that the evidence did not clearly point to a specific criminal act or an identifiable perpetrator.
Moreover, the court noted that several of the woman’s complaints might fall under civil jurisdiction, particularly in light of the couple’s ongoing separation proceedings and the dispute over the care and custody of their children. These proceedings had been running parallel to the criminal investigation, further complicating the case.
While the magistrate could not establish prima facie evidence of a crime, the court did not close the case. Instead, she emphasised the need for further police investigation.
The court acknowledged that serious concerns remained about the husband’s alleged conduct and ordered the executive police to continue probing the matter.