Jeremie Camilleri had hinted about his fatal plan when he called his ex-girlfriend, shortly before driving his car at Pelin Kaya as she crossed a petrol station forecourt, according to a recorded audio clip presented to court.

Details of the recording were divulged by a digital forensic expert appointed by the inquiring magistrate to collect all data related to the fatal incident where the 30-year-old Turkish interior designer was killed as she was walking in Gżira close to the Paul and Rocco service station.

The sequence of events leading up to that fatal impact and its immediate aftermath was captured on footage from cameras from several neighbouring businesses, put together chronologically by expert Martin Bajada, as he presented the audiovisual evidence along with his report in court on Thursday.

That sequence showed Camilleri’s BMW speeding at Gżira and the moment when it veered towards the victim, hitting her and then hit the petrol station before finally coming to a halt as it crashed into the glass front of the nearby KFC outlet.

Bajada also gathered 11 hours of footage from the bodycam of 10 officers who rushed to the site of what had first appeared to be a traffic accident in the early hours of January 18.

The footage also showed the searches which had subsequently taken place inside Camilleri’s BMW as well as his Lija home the following day.

Data was also extracted from the mobile phone of both Camilleri and his victim, calls to the 112 emergency number that night as well as video clips by those who personally witnessed the immediate aftermath of the fatality.

Data from the victim’s and the accused’s phones indicated that there had never been any contact between the two.

The court was told that on the day of the incident and the day before there were many phone exchanges between Camilleri and his former partner.

Among them was a conversation which Bajada said the inquiring magistrate deemed to be relevant, where Camilleri had called his ex partner, hinting at what he might do.  

His ex recorded him, later presenting that audio clip when testifying before the inquiring magistrate, giving the time of the call and explaining the context. No details were given in Thursday's sitting.

Timeline

Medical consultant Michael Spiteri gave the court a timeline of what happened on that night.

He said that at 1.08am a call was made to the hospital's accident and emergency department raising the alert about a serious traffic accident in Gżira.

Within 15 minutes, Spiteri, who was on call from home that night, was at the site, preceded by a crew from Mater Dei Hospital who assisted Kaya lying on the pavement, further down on the same side as the service station.

She was unconscious and her heart was not beating.

They also tried to assist a man who was shouting and behaving aggressively whilst detained by police officers.

After carrying out a rapid triage, the consultant directed his team to focus their efforts on the yet-unidentified woman, assisting them as they strived to re-start her heart, stabilise her condition and then transport her to the hospital emergency department.

She had multiple injuries, but the most important factor in such circumstances - as dictated by international protocol- was to try to reverse those injuries and damage.

The patient’s windpipe had to be opened, blood loss replaced, air trapped in the lungs released by means of a minor intervention on site and the heart re-started, explained the doctor.

Before 2am, the victim was admitted at Mater Dei Hospital, her heart still not beating. She was still unidentified.

Spiteri said his leadership role stopped once his team handed over the patient to the professionals at the department.

The patient was certified dead soon afterwards, before she was formally identified as Pelin Kaya.

As for the accused, “who definitively resembled the person detained by police that day,” the witness recalled that he was shouting and acting aggressively while detained along the same pavement, metres away from where paramedics were tending Kaya.

There were also some 15 or 20 bystanders in the “rather wide area” of the incident.

“All were in a state of shock,” testified Spiteri, as he also described the damage at the service station, the BMW that was half in the KFC shop front, debris and stones scattered all over the place.

The case, presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, continues.

AG lawyers Kaylie Bonnett and Nathaniel Falzon are prosecuting together with Inspector Kurt Zahra.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene’ Darmanin are defence counsel.

Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi, Charlon Gouder and Ramona Attard are appearing for the victim’s family.