Anglu Xuereb this evening described the scene in the Sliema apartment where his son-in-law Duncan Zammit and Nicholas Gera died of multiple stab wounds on New Year's Day.
Speaking on Bondi Plus, he said that his daughter Claire Zammit Xuereb had not known Nicholas Gera and tried to ask him who he was and why he had entered the apartment, as she phoned the emergency services.
She is insisting that Mr Gera was armed with two knives when he attacked her husband who was sleeping beside her in the main bedroom of their Sliema penthouse.
Mr Xuereb said that when she was questioned by the police, Claire refused to be assisted by a lawyer.
Mr Xuereb also gave other details such as that Mr Zammit’s body was found on Mr Gera’s and there was blood spattered all over the doors near the bedroom and the dressing room (see video).
Mr Xuereb also relayed his daughter’s readiness to forgive Mr Gera with the passage of time because he “surely did not know what he was doing”.
Tanya Gera, who had adopted Nicholas and his brothers from Bosnia, said nobody was telling the family anything, not even the police.
“I am reading a lot of things in the media but I do not know if they are true or not,” she said, still visibly shocked at what happened to her son and Mr Zammit.
She spoke of how on New Year’s Day in the morning, policemen called at her house asking to speak to Nicholas. She found he was not at home. They returned later and told her he had died.
Mrs Gera said she was very shocked. The day before, Nicholas had told her he would be working late, and he asked her not to wake him up early. She had therefore thought he was still in his bedroom when the police called the first time.
“Nicky was a quiet boy, he rarely went out, he was a family boy, always with us and always joking.”
She said that Nicholas never mentioned Duncan Zammit.
Veteran forensic expert Anthony Abela Medici said forensic tests would have established the direction of each and every stab wound and that could lead investigators to determine how the “presumed” fight between the two men developed.
Dr Abela Medici said the police will be trying to establish a connection or relationship of sorts between the two men.
The autopsy, he added, would reveal the type of injuries sustained and how. Other tests would determine whether the men had drugs or alcohol in their body and any tendencies.
Dr Abela Medici said CCTV footage from various outlets on the route between Paceville – where Mr Gera was working on New Year’s Eve – and Sliema – where the deadly fight took place – could give investigators important information.