Edwin Grech believes police investigations into the letter bomb murder of his daughter, Karin, 34 years ago were “amateurish and childish” and feels it is his mission to pressure officers into doing their job professionally by speaking up through the media.

There is a lot they could have done, so I’m going to continue to push

“The investigations they (the police) claim to have done are not acceptable. They’re very amateurish and very childish and there is a lot they could have done, so I’m going to have to continue to push,” Prof. Grech said.

In a letter published in The Sunday Times last week, Prof. Grech spoke about the “disjointed” work of those investigating his daughter’s murder, prompting a police statement to say everything possible was done to solve the case.

The parcel was addressed to Prof. Grech and delivered to his home by normal mail on December 28, 1977, where his 15-year-old daughter opened it, thinking it was a Christmas present. It exploded in her hands and she died some time later in hospital. At the time, the medical profession considered her father to be a strike breaker in the long-drawn dispute between the Labour government and the Medical Association of Malta (MAM).

Prof. Grech insisted police did not investigate the case properly. “I have personally provided extremely important information, which should have led them to solve the crime.

They even failed to check the veracity of this information.”

The former Labour MP said he was informed that, during the doctors’ strike and closure of the Medical School, located in St Luke’s Hospital’s grounds, the Medical Students Association council started to meet in the legal offices of a well-known politician in central Malta.

MAM council members and a number of politically associated people also attended the meeting, he claimed.

The parcel bombs plot was allegedly hatched in these offices and a well-known criminal was commissioned to prepare the explosive devices.

A very good carpenter was engaged to prepare the small wooden container that held the battery and explosive, he claimed.

Last week, the police issued a statement saying that all information they had about the case had been thoroughly investigated and brought to the attention of the inquiring magistrate.

The case, they added, was still being rigorously investigated but details could not be given since it was subject to a magisterial inquiry.

Commenting on the statement, Prof. Grech said: “This is the usual statement of denial. They should check on the story I gave them.

“I did not invent the story. It was told to me.”