Updated 7.10 pm with girl's testimony

A woman whose estranged husband allegedly threatened to shoot their children and himself on Easter Sunday has testified about the ordeal in court.

The woman appeared via video link in proceedings against the 37-year-old Għargħur man who allegedly threatened to shoot his 15-year old foster daughter, her foster cousin, his 10-year-old autistic daughter and finally himself.

Audio of the alleged incident was played to Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo during Wednesday's sitting.

The incident was triggered by the man’s suspicions that his wife had a relationship with the daughter’s biological father.

The couple were married for twelve years but relations turned sour and the situation deteriorated in January when the accused moved out of the family home following a row with the girl he had fostered since she was seven months old.

Days later, his wife received a letter for personal separation which she initially refused to accept, hoping to restore their relationship.

But she subsequently went along with court proceedings for separation after obtaining proof that her husband was having an affair with a married woman, a mother-of-three, from the same village.

She told the court that on Easter Sunday she had lunch with her parents. Later, her foster child insisted on meeting her natural father, a request the mother resisted since she anticipated her husband’s negative reaction.

But when the girl continued to insist, she finally agreed to go to a Sliema restaurant for the meeting at around 7pm.

“We had a drink with the man and his relatives and then left,” recalled the witness, describing how she drove back home at around 8.30pm.

While at the restaurant, she got a WhatsApp call from her husband, asking for their whereabouts.

Back home and settling down in bed, she suddenly heard the front door slam.

It was around 2:55am on April 18.

Her bedroom door was locked, a precaution she had been taking since her marriage deteriorated.

The accused stormed into the apartment, banged on his wife’s door and then headed straight into his foster daughter's room.

“Get out. Choose between me or your dad,” he said.

But when his wife intervened, asking for an explanation, the enraged man allegedly pushed her out of the flat in her pajamas, wanting to know if she had met the other man.

Struggling to push the door open, she called out to her daughter to hand over her mobile and when the girl did, she dialed 112 for help.

She then ran barefoot out on the street, hiding among some potted plants on a verandah until police arrived.

Meanwhile, her daughter called, pleading with her to “come back.”

The woman feared going back to face her husband but felt bad about leaving the girls behind.

When the officers arrived soon after, she was told to put her mobile on speaker when the accused called telling her that unless she returned he would kill the kids and himself.

He texted her soon after and then called a second time warning her that it was “time up.”

“I screamed and shouted,” the witness said as she recounted the episode which ended when police intervened and she was finally reunited with the girls.

“When he came home, he was not in his right mind. In my opinion he had been drinking,” explained the witness.

“He is a quiet person, not talkative, highly talented and loves the children, but when under the influence of alcohol he changes. And this had often happened lately,” she said.

Young cousin testifies

During Wednesday’s sitting, the 15-year old cousin of the fostered daughter also testified.

In a previous sitting the court was told that she had managed to record audio of the incident in two parts totalling almost half an hour. She had held her mobile phone under her pillow and later on the edge of her bed. 

That recording was played out to the girl, when testifying via video link, so that she could give a step-by-step account of the events as they unfolded.

There were ‘clapping sounds’ made by the accused as he clapped his hands when ordering his foster child out of the flat.

When his wife stepped in and he ordered her out, her shouts could be heard, along with banging sounds as she tried to push her way back in.

The girl testified that she was too scared to leave her bed to answer the woman’s cries for her mobile phone.

As the recording played on, the accused could be heard telling his foster daughter to call her [natural] father, challenging him to “come over” and then ordered her out of the flat.

“Aqbizli ‘l barra,” (Get out) he rapped, on and on.

Then suddenly turning to the cousin, he told her, “if you want to go with them, go!”

The girl ran out of the flat after her cousin, her cries audible on tape.

The second part of the recording started when the two girls were ordered back inside by the accused.

The witness said that she fled to the safety of the upper area, sitting on the floor of the common area, while her cousin -the accused’s foster child-remained in the lower area, her sobbing clearly audible in the recording.

The situation escalated when the accused entered a flat opposite the family flat and walked out with a gun, checking to see if was loaded.

“Mama’?” a girl’s voice suddenly piped in.

It was the couple’s 10-year old autistic daughter who had slept through the commotion that far.

The accused then called his wife, warning that unless she went back “in one minute” she would "not see the kids any more.

"And you won’t see me either. This is loaded. Then you’ll see,” he added.

“Don’t call the police because we’ll all die,” he warned his wife over the phone, loading his gun with more bullets as the girls sat quietly on the floor next to the sofa, the witness said.

“Come now or I will kill everyone.”

Again he called his wife, threatening that it was “time up.”

“Come now or I will kill everyone.”

“I love you so much” his 10-year old child called out, as she hugged her dad.

“It will be the last,” he replied, putting the gun to his head and making a “bang” sound.

“Thanks to your dad! ”the man spat out, addressing his foster daughter. “Jien rabbejtek,” (I raised you) he went on.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo, decreed that there was enough prima facie ( first glance) evidence for the accused to stand trial.

The court also upheld a request for bail after the prosecution declared that the fears perceived by the AG no longer subsisted after today’s testimonies and as long as “very stringent” conditions were imposed.

Bail was thus granted against a deposit of €3000, a personal guarantee of €30,000, daily signing of the bail book and abiding by a curfew between 9pm and 5am.

The accused has to live at another address in a different locality and is barred from communicating with his wife, daughter and niece under the terms of a protection order. 

Inspector John Spiteri prosecuted.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Franco Debono were defence counsel.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi appeared parte civile.