Updated 4.55pm with arguments by the defence below.

A man who confessed to killing his partner in a Gozo apartment told the police that he felt “too much guilt” and wanted everybody to forgive him. 

Lawrence Abina, 32, said he did not know what came of him as he feared Rita Ellul was cheating with 'Stefan,' who it later transpired, was a fictional character the victim made up to make him feel jealous.

Details of the February 26, 2022 murder were given in court by homicide squad inspector Kurt Zahra on Monday. 

Abina is pleading not guilty to the crime. 

Ellul, 49, was found dead inside the apartment in Triq Dun Franġisk Mizzi, Għajnsielem. While foul play was initially ruled out, the case took a different turn once an autopsy showed the victim was strangled.

On the fourth day of the trial, the court heard from inspector Zahra, who went into detail about Abina's hours' long interrogation.

The first interrogation took place two days after Ellul was found dead. 

The accused tried to portray ‘a good relationship'

During the first interrogation, Abina was asked about his relationship with Ellul, whom he said he met in 2018 after they spent a few weeks chatting on Facebook. 

Asked how he would describe the relationship he said it was “good” and that in August 2022, they had been together for four years. 

Abina said Ellul did not work, and he would pay rent for her Iklin residence and give her money. Asked if he ever planned to marry Ellul, Abina said he wanted to but she had said it was “unlikely”. He said this caused him pain, but he stayed with her because he loved her. 

During the interrogation, Zahra asked Abina about the domestic violence report Ellul filed against him in September 2020, and the interrogation took a turn. 

Abina went into detail about how he had gone out with Ellul’s cousin, and when he returned to her apartment in Iklin, she asked him where he went and to tell the truth. He said she started to push him, and he slapped her. 

Rita Ellul was found dead inside a Gozitan apartment back in 2022. Photo: Facebook

When Zahra asked if this was the only time Abina hit her, he said “never again”, but when told that the report stated that Ellul said this was not the first time he hit her he said: “It happens sometimes... There were other events yes, but not serious". 

During the interrogation, Zahra said Ellul told her friends there had been several other episodes of domestic violence and arguments between the couple. 

The police also asked him if there was an argument in the evening before Ellul died, but Abina at first denied this. 

Abina was asked about a black eye observed during the autopsy, but he continued to deny any arguments between them. On that evening after they went out, they returned to the apartment, had sex, and he went to sleep, he claimed. 

“I did not hurt her, she was in the kitchen and I was in the bedroom,” Abina said.

He admitted, however, that Ellul could not trust him because he admitted that he had cheated on her. 

When he was asked how he thought Ellul’s family and three daughters felt when they found out how their mother died, he said: “I am sorry she died, but I could never kill someone.”

'I feel too much guilt'

During his second interrogation, Abina confessed spontaneously while smoking a cigarette moments before the interrogation took place. 

He admitted to killing Ellul to Assistant Police Commissioner Sandro Gatt, who happened to be smoking at the same place. Abina was immediately taken into the interrogation room.

In the video, Abina is seen holding his head and crying. When asked to show how he killed Ellul, he lifted his hands and said he held down his thumbs on her neck and said he “tied her neck”.

“I do not know what came of me. She cheat on me with 'Stefan,' and I didn’t want her to leave me, and I decided to finish like that. I am so sorry,” he said during the interrogation.

When asked what he wanted to achieve from killing her, he said he was jealous and worried that Rita would leave him for 'Stefan' and go back to Malta. 

In previous sittings, it emerged that 'Stefan' was a fictional character Ellul made up to make Abina jealous.

He explained how he was ready to leave the flat that morning, but something “pushed me back” to go back to where she was sleeping. 

Abina said he started to think about killing Ellul on Friday evening as they argued about him cheating on her. 

When asked if Ellul was awake while he tried to strangle her, he said she was half asleep. He said she started to cry and tried to defend herself while he strangled her. 

The accused said it was the first time he tried to kill her, and that previously he had only slapped her or pushed her.

'This is now an open and shut case' - defence

Near the end of Monday's court sitting, legal aid lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace addressed the jury, insisting this was not an “open and shut case”.

He said that testimony on Saturday by forensic doctor Mario Xerri did not tally with the version of events the accused gave.

During his testimony on Saturday, Xerri was asked by the defence if the marks on Ellul’s neck were done with one or both hands, and he said that it could show that Ellul was choked with one hand. During the interrogation, Abina showed that he choked Ellul with both hands. Micallef Stafrace said this could cause questions of doubts of the evidence.

“Ask yourself, has the prosecution proved its case against the accused beyond reason of doubt? Our defence says no, there are doubts and the doubts are reasonable,” he said.

The trial resumes on Tuesday.

Lawyers Kaylie Bonnet, Anthony Vella and Nathaniel Falzon are prosecuting on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. 

Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace was appointed as Abina’s legal aid counsel. 

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri are appearing parte civile for the Ellul family.