Statements made by the man charged with filing a false report about the person who shot Star had major discrepancies about the time of the crime, the method used to kill the dog and what the witness had actually seen, a police inspector told a court this morning.

Inspector Ramon Mercieca was giving evidence in the case against Carmel Sacco, 45, of Kirkop who had at first admitted to filing a false police report accusing his neighbour, Alfred Vella, 44, of Birżebbuġa, of shooting the dog.

However, he later retracted the guilty plea after it emerged that he had been right after all.

Star was found buried alive near Għar Ħasan on May 19 and died a couple of weeks later despite treatment.

Taking the witness stand today, Mr Vella, the man who shot the dog, said that he had the dog for only an hour and a half before he shot it. Mr Vella said that he had shot Star at around 7 p.m. on May 18 and it was found in the afternoon of the following day - some 20 hours later.

It had previously belonged to his mother-in-law who had had it for 11 years.

Mr Sacco was his cousin and their fields shared the boundary wall. The two, he said, had a longstanding argument over Mepa permission for development in Mr Sacco's field.

Inspector Mercieca said that he had investigated Mr Sacco on two main issues – the actual cruelty to the dog and the discrepancies between an anonymous letter he had sent to the Animal Welfare Department and his police statement.

There were big discrepancies in the time, method of killing and what he had actually seen, Insp. Mercieca said.

In his anonymous letter Mr Sacco had said that from his field he saw Mr Vella shoot the dog with a gun, drag something black and white 150 metres and place it under a tree. He said that this happened at 9 a.m.

But in his police statement he said the crime happened at 11 a.m.  He also said he had only heard the dog whimpering and he did not see Mr Vella shoot it. He had also said that the time had come for him to get his own back after the argument over with Mr Vella over the boundary wall.

Inspector Mercieca said that phone records showed that Mr Sacco was not in the field when the dog was shot and he had also admitted to this in his statement.

When asked if the time of shooting was corroborated by other evidence besides that given in Vella's statement, Mr Vella said it was not.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Gianluca Caruana Curran are representing Mr Sacco.