Murder accused Noel Azzopardi told police that he shot victim Eric Borg in the back after becoming enraged by something Borg said, a court heard on Wednesday.

Azzopardi walked into a Rabat police station on New Year’s Day wearing shorts that appeared to be stained with blood and told officers he was the person who killed Borg, who was found dead on a Rabat pavement earlier that day.

Borg had been shot twice at close range using a shotgun. Two eyewitnesses in a penthouse told police that the shooter had emerged from a grey Toyota Hilux, shot the man on the pavement, then got back in the car and drove off.

The vehicle they described matched one that police officers found parked in Azzopardi’s garage.

Azzopardi, 39, is pleading not guilty to murdering Borg, firing a gun within 200 metres of an urban area and not ensuring that his gun and ammunition were kept in a secure place inside his home. 

When the compilation of evidence against him began on Wednesday, prosecuting inspector Wayne Camilleri told the court that Borg had confessed to the crime while being interrogated by the police with defence lawyers present.

He told officers that he knew Borg by sight as they owned fields close to one another in Buskett and that the two had exchanged words that day.

Azzopardi did not give officers a detailed account of what the two men discussed, but said that he saw red after Borg told him “don’t stick your nose in other people’s affairs, you’ll regret it.” [tindaħalx f’affarijiet ta’ ħaddieħor, inpattihielek].

He said he got into his car and drove after Borg, who parked on Triq il-Fidloqqom in Rabat.

Azzopardi then got out of his Hilux with his shotgun, shot Borg once in the back and then again as he lay on the ground to ensure he wouldn’t get up, Azzopardi told interrogators, adding that he did so because he was enraged by what Borg had told him.

Reports of intimidation

Borg had had trouble with Azzopardi in the past, the court heard. Borg’s sister, Elaine Micallef, testified that Azzopardi had been harassing her brother and father since 2021. He would file police reports against them, stop his car close to them and drive through their street.

Her brother, the murder victim, had also told her that Azzopardi had tailgated him while driving his Hilux, to intimidate him. Borg’s sister reported that incident to the police.

Two weeks before Borg was killed, he told his sister that Azzopardi – who she only knew as the man who harassed her family, not by name or sight – was harassing him and stopping alongside his car.

Azzopardi, she recalled her brother telling her, had also followed him when he was driving her car, a green Mazda Demio.  

Micallef recalled how Rabat police had spoken to her some years ago and told her that someone had filed a report alleging that she [Micallef] was following them in a green Demio. After her brother was murdered she learned that Azzopardi, the murder suspect, had filed that report.

One of the police reports Azzopardi filed also referred to a Mazda Demio parked close to his field. 

Borg’s father, Nicholas, also testified. He told the court that Azzopardi had once squeezed him in with his car in Buskett, forcing him to reverse around 50 metres to exit the area.

The police had also contacted him about a number of reports that a “Noel Azzopardi” had filed against him, alleging harassment. But Borg’s father said he had nothing to do with Azzopardi and that his son had never told him anything about him, either.

All he knew was that Azzopardi owned a farm opposite their family’s field.

Police officers at the murder scene in Rabat. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Under cross-examination, the inspector confirmed that Azzopardi had told interrogators that some people were “picking on him” and that he had filed a number of police reports, the most recent one being in Qormi.

Azzopardi seemed to be irked by cars being parked near his field, the inspector said. Officers had followed up on those reports but found nothing wrong.

The victim's girlfriend, Julia Falzon, told the court that the name Noel Azzopardi meant nothing to her. Borg, who she knew for 10 years and had dated for five, never told her about any troubles so as not to worry her, she testified.

When she last spoke to Borg that day, over WhatsApp, he told her he was heading to Buskett to feed the animals they kept at their family field, she testified. 

Shotguns found at home

After Azzopardi gave himself up to the police, officers searched his home on Inguanez Street in Rabat.

There, they found a shotgun cartridge belt inside the parked Hilux pick-up truck and eight different shotguns. Five were registered in Azzopardi’s name and the other three were his father’s. Only five of the eight shotguns were locked up. The others were in different rooms.

Azzopardi led officers to one of the shotguns, which was placed behind a grandfather clock in the house’s living room. He told officers that was the murder weapon.

Inspector Camilleri told the court that the police are still waiting for DNA and ballistic results of samples taken from the alleged murder weapon, Azzopardi and the clothes he was wearing when he confessed.

He said that Azzopardi was assessed by a psychiatrist before being interrogated and was pronounced fit for questioning. Defence lawyers were given full disclosure and the interrogation was video recorded.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Jacob Magri, the inspector confirmed that Azzopardi had told officers that he had had a brain tumour removed when he was young and that he was under the care of a psychiatrist at Mount Carmel Hospital.

At the end of the hearing, Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia said that Azzopardi's medical records must be filed before she would deliver a prima facie decree in the case. Azzopardi's lawyers have insisted on those records being introduced into evidence. 

The prosecution was led by Inspector Camilleri, Inspector Godwin Scerri and Attorney General lawyer Kaylie Bonett.

Lawyers Alex Miruzzi, Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri represented the defendant. Lawyers Joe Giglio and Michaela Giglio represented the victim’s family.