Updated 12.55pm

The 95-year old victim mauled to death by her grandson’s pet pitbulls at her Msida home last year would often lament she felt unsafe and constantly checked to make sure the door to the inner yard was locked. 

“The door is locked isn’t it, Ros? Because I don’t feel safe,” Inez Galea would constantly tell her daughter, Rosemarie Barbara, who took the witness stand on Friday in criminal proceedings against her nephew, André Galea.

Galea stands accused of the involuntary homicide of his elderly relative who was killed in the violent incident on September 7, 2020.

The emotional witness recalled the events of that fateful afternoon when merely an hour or so before tragedy struck, she visited her mother along with her daughter.

Inez had asked her granddaughter to fetch her milk from a convenience store just around the corner. 

And after doing so, Rosemarie and her daughter, Jeanette, said goodbye at around 3.20pm, leaving the elderly lady seated calmly on her sofa.

The door to the inner yard was locked that day, confirmed the witness.

Her mother would look out into that yard and would often complain about the mess caused by the dogs that roamed freely down from the upper quarters of the house where her grandson lived. 

“I can look out into the yard and see the thick layer of animal faeces,” Inez would generally complain, pointing out that André had not cleaned up the week’s mess. 

“She would not even put a broom out there,” testified the victim’s daughter, adding that the stench from the yard was so unbearable that her mother, slept in her small bedroom nearby “holding a handkerchief to her nose”.

“Mummy often told me that she wasn’t safe,” said the witness.

The old woman also appeared to be “very afraid of André”.

Accused had pushed his grandmother twice

Asked what she meant by that statement, Barbara said that her mother would remark that André had guts.

In fact, her mother had told her that the accused had twice pushed her over, causing her to fall flat on her face, the witness went on.

“Look what I have ended up with,” Inez would sometimes exclaim with reference to André’s father who would go on holiday while she ended lumped up with her grandson, even cooking his meals.

“Mummy was a very strong woman,” wept Barbara, as she recalled how her 95-year-old mother would insist on doing the household chores and would even serve her daughter coffee on a tray.

“Go buy two pastries Ros,”she would tell her daughter. 

Although she often urged her mother to move in with her, Inez refused to leave the home she had bought with her late husband.

“It was all her house, all,” stressed Barbara, adding that following the death of her sister who succumbed to cancer four years ago, André had taken over the house, “throwing out” his relatives’ possessions.

The week before the incident, Barbara had visited her mother three days in a row because the old woman had been without electricity since August 30.

Asked about her mother’s pet Chihuahua, the victim would not go anywhere without the animal, taking it along on family walks, said Barbara, wiping away her tears.

Turning to that fateful afternoon, it was minutes since she had left her mother that the urgent call came through. 

Her daughter drove her back to Msida where medics and other first responders were trying to get into her mother’s home. 

At first she thought that her mum might have fallen and knocked her head.

“But then they told me…” tailed off the woman, as she broke down sobbing, while her nephew sat, bent over at the front bench, not once lifting his gaze throughout the sitting presided by magistrate Ian Farrugia. 

Nanna loved André 

Testifying later, André’s cousin Jeanette Barbara recalled how the old lady would sometimes praise her grandson and other times confess that she would rather not have him living at the Msida house.

She would complain about the mess in the yard but still cooked for André, occasionally lamenting, “See how I’ve ended up in my old age”.

Also testifying on Friday were two animal welfare officers who had taken custody of the two pitbulls involved in the mauling attack.

They recalled how André had reassured them that the animals were “tame”.

In fact, he had entered the premises and returned shortly with two dogs on leash, handing them over to the officers.

“The dogs appeared tame,” said one of the officers, Saviour Farrugia, who had escorted the dogs into the van without any difficulty.

He then accompanied André and a police inspector up to the roof where they found a number of pens, all adequately sized and well-equipped, which provided living space for some 10 other dogs.

There were pitbulls, mastiffs and mixed breed dogs, said the witness. “All in good state and roaming within the pens.”

Following that inspection, the officer and his colleague, Raymond Cutajar, the other animal welfare officer testifying on Friday, escorted the two pitbulls and the dead Chihuahua to the animal hospital at Ta’ Qali.

The case continues. Inspector Colin Sheldon prosecuted. Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Ana Thomas are defence counsel. Lawyer Mario Mifsud appeared on behalf of the victim’s relatives who testified today.