Victim had 'felt building move'

The daughter of a woman who was killed when a St Paul's Bay apartment block collapsed last year told a court how on the morning of the incident her mother had told her that she felt the building shudder.

Diane Mulé Stagno told Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera that her mother, Maria Dolores Zarb, lived in a block of apartments in Ramon Perellos Street and there was a construction site adjacent to the block.

She was testifying in the first sitting for the compilation of evidence against Paul Demicoli, 47, of Birkirkara as the owner of the construction site, Paul Magro, 30, of Qrendi, the director and employee of Alsfaltar Ltd, and Kevin Bonnici, 29, of Birzebbuga, another employee at the company.

The three men are pleading not guilty to the manslaughter of Mrs Zarb, 60, and 24-year-old Russian Nadezda Vavilova on June 3, 2004.

They were further charged with causing the women's death through negligence, lack of professionalism and by failing to observe regulations and to safeguard people's safety.

Mrs Mulé Stagno said that on June 3, 2004, her husband, Gino, took their daughter to her mother's house in the morning. Mrs Mulé Stagno and her husband then went to pick up the girl at about 1.15 p.m.

When they arrived they met her mother outside with her daughter.

As they stood across the road from her mother's apartment block they looked at a construction site situated between the block where her mother lived and another block. Her mother mentioned that she had felt the building move and they also spoke about other things.

"We started to make our way back home when I turned back to pick up my daughter's pushchair which was at my mother's. By the time I reached the main door of the apartments my mother was already upstairs and I could hear her open the door.

"I went up to get the pushchair and left. That was the last time I saw her," she recalled.

Mrs Mulé Stagno remembered that when she walked back outside, next to her husband and daughter, she saw two workmen working on the supporting wall of Hal Mann Court which was on the other side of the construction site.

She also saw a mechanical shovel on the side of her mother's apartment. "I remember that I was surprised because the mechanical shovel was touching the supporting wall of my mother's block."

Mrs Mulé Stagno went on to explain how she, her husband and their daughter went home and, at about 3.40 p.m., someone knocked at their door.

It turned out to be a policeman, her neighbour and her mother's neighbour who had come to tell her what had happened.

Gino Mulé Stagno also took the witness stand and said that his mother-in-law Mrs Zarb had once mentioned that she tried to speak to the architect of the site, Joseph Falzon, but he ignored her.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera also heard pathologists Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta and Ali Safraz, who exhibited a report in which they concluded that both victims died as a result of traumatic asphyxia caused by multiple injuries.

At the end of the sitting Magistrate Scerri Herrera ruled that three were sufficient reasons for the three men to be indicted.