Updated 12.41pm
Blood belonging to murder victim Mario Farrugia was found inside the home of the man accused of stabbing him to death, a court heard on Friday.
Forensic experts matched traces of blood found on walls inside Elliot Paul Busuttil’s apartment in Attard to that of the murder victim, described as an introvert who ran a small taxi service to supplement his disability pension.
He had been stabbed in the upper chest around 45 times.
Busuttil, who is pleading not guilty to murder charges, is known to the police and is also facing attempted murder charges in a similar case.
Investigators first linked Busuttil to the case after finding phone calls between the two, with suspicions growing after learning that Farrugia had confided in his brother that two of his taxi service clients were drug dealers.
Phone tracking data showed that phones belonging to Farrugia and Busuttil moved in tandem in the hours before the victim’s phone went offline, and CCTV footage also placed the two men together in those hours.
When officers moved in to arrest Busuttil, they found him together with his parents and brother. As officers searched his apartment, his agitated mother berated officers and told them she had “washed the entire place using hygiene [bleach]”, inspector Wayne Camilleri told the court.
But forensic teams spotted specks of blood on a wall inside the house, and that blood matched that of Farrugia, Camilleri said.
Times of Malta first reported that Farrugia's blood was found at Busuttil's home on April 15.
Busuttil's parents seemed more concerned about the damage police had done to their front door than about the fact that their son was being arrested in connection with murder, the inspector told the court.
A deleted photo on Busuttil’s phone showed Farrugia’s missing driver identification tag, which has yet to be found.
Flies buzzing and a rotten smell
The court, presided by magistrate Astrid May Grima, heard testimony from several police officers involved in the case.
Farrugia’s phone went offline early in the morning of March 29, inspectors told the court, with its last reported location linked to the antenna closest to Busuttil’s Attard home.
Two days later, a concerned neighbour reported him missing, leading police on a search that would eventually lead them to find his silver Peugeot parked in Qormi.
Flies were buzzing around the boot of the car and a rotten smell filled the air, several inspectors testified. When the car boot was opened, they found the decomposing corpse of a man.
DNA tests confirmed that the body was that of Farrugia, who was described in court as a loner with no friends who had been medically declared unfit to work some years back.
Mario Farrugia, the murder victim, was reported missing some days before his body was found. Photo: Malta PoliceTwo other people who police had initially arrested in connection with the crime also linked Busuttil to Farrugia. Ramzi Abdulhafid Ib Abukem told officers that Busuttil had used his phone to call Farrugia to pick him up from his Msida apartment on the night of March 28, while a Colombian woman told officers that Busuttil had called her from Farrugia’s phone late that same night.
Inspector Camilleri told the court that video footage placed Farrugia and Busuttil outside that Msida apartment that night. Under cross-examination, he confirmed that a third person was inside Farrugia’s car at that time. He gave no further information about that person, saying court experts would be able to provide more detail.
Following the day’s witnesses, magistrate Grima decreed that there was enough prima facie evidence for Busuttil to stand trial for Farrugia’s murder.
The case continues on June 16.
Lawyers Edward Gatt and Ishmael Psaila represented Busuttil.
Inspector Wayne Camilleri prosecuted, with the help of lawyers George Camilleri, Kaylie Bonnett and Maria Schembri from the attorney general’s office.
Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri appeared parte civile, on behalf of the victim's family.
Investigators at the Qormi site where Farrugia's car was found. Photo: Matthew MirabelliAs it happened
Live blog ends
12.12pm Thank you for having joined us for this live blog. We will have a summary of the court hearing available at the top of this article shortly.
Busuttil indicted for murder
12.10pm Farrugia’s brother is in the law courts, waiting to testify. But the court decides to wrap up the day’s proceedings at this point and to have him testify at a later date.
The court decrees that there is enough prima facie evidence for Busuttil to face trial on indictment and defers the case to June 16 and 12.10pm.
Victim's blood found on walls of suspect's home
12pm Traces of blood were found on the wall of Busuttil’s home, Attard testifies. The blood matched that of the murder victim, Farrugia.
Busuttil’s DNA was also found on the handbrake of Farrugia’s car.
Confirming testimony
11.55am Inspector Attard also testifies about Farrugia’s car being found in Qormi, repeating what his colleagues have said: that there was a bad smell, flies and a dark liquid.
He tells the court that officers suspected that the man seen on CCTV was Elliot Paul Busuttil due to his stature and gait.
Attard also tells the court about the CCTV and phone tracking data that linked Busuttil and Farrugia, and which we’ve heard from other witnesses today, as well as about the process to arrest Busuttil.
Attard says the blade used to stab Farrugia was one-sided [we previously heard it was double-edged].
Newsflash
11.51am Meanwhile, and unrelated to this case: we’ve just broken news that Agriculture Minister (and former Heritage Malta chairman) Anton Refalo has been questioned by police after a historical artefact was spotted in his garden.
Read that here.
Farrugia the introvert
11.49am Attard says police spoke to Farrugia’s sister-in-law. She told officers that Farrugia was very reserved even with his family, and only confided slightly in his brother [her husband]. He had suffered from schizophrenia after a traumatic episode years ago, she told them.
Farrugia rarely went out save for coffee morning events and was due to go to such an event on March 29.
She told the police that Farrugia got his taxi and business cards in 2020. He had spoken with her husband in March, she said, telling him that two of his clients were involved in drugs and underpaid him, paying him "three euros instead of six".
Inspector confirms search of home
11.43am Inspector Jean Paul Attard from the St Julian’s police station testifies. He was among officers to search Farrugia’s Pembroke apartment following the missing person report, which was filed on April 1.
He confirms what inspector Tabone testified earlier: inside the apartment they noted a pot full of mouldy food, a receipt marked March 28 and a business card. They knew Farrugia drove a silver Peugeot but could not find the car.
Attard runs through other evidence given earlier in the day by previous witnesses.
Romanian's testimony postponed
11.37am The Romanian woman who was arrested is the next to testify. Her first name is Elena but we didn’t catch her surname. She lives in Mosta, has been in Malta since 2015 and says she has known Busuttil for “a very long time.”
But she’s not confident about testifying in English, and her testimony is postponed to another date when a translator can be present.
A third person inside the car?
11.27am Camilleri is now being cross-examined by the defence.
Under questioning, he says that police interrogated Busuttil’s parents and also arrested his brother. All three went to the police station together.
Camilleri is asked whether they could see how many people were inside the Peugeot when it was photographed by a speed camera in Attard. He says they could not make it out from the photo.
He confirms that the Peugeot car was seen stopping outside Abukem’s Msida apartment. Busuttil went up into the apartment block but Farrugia did not, he says under questioning.
The magistrate notes that the car was seen going to that Msida location twice.
The defence argues that during that second visit there were three, not two, people inside that car. Did that person exit the car?
“No,” says the inspector.
“Why didn’t you mention that third person?” defence lawyer Edward Gatt asks.
Inspector Camilleri says court experts will provide more detail about that. Busuttil's fingerprints were also found on the gearstick of Farrugia's car, he adds.
A deleted photo
11.22am Inside Busuttil’s phone, they found a photo of Farrugia’s driver identification tag. The tag has not yet been found. The photo had been deleted.
A data extraction expert is still working on extracting more data from the phone, Camilleri says.
Victim's blood found at Busuttil's apartment
11.18am Busuttil was interrogated on April 14 and again the following day, assisted by lawyers.
DNA tests proved that traces of Farrugia’s blood was found at his apartment.
Busuttil chose not to answer any questions, inspector Camilleri tells the court.
Police and forensic experts at the Qormi site. Photo: Matthew MirabelliAgitated Busuttil 'needed drugs'
11.16am The Colombian woman Abukem was with when he was arrested was also questioned. She knew Busuttil and had met him at a Bugibba club she worked at.
Call logs showed that Farrugia had called her twice, but she said she did not know him and that Busuttil had called her from that number on March 28 at 10.20pm. She could not recall the second call, at around 1am, which lasted around 10 seconds.
She told officers that she was at Busuttil’s home that night to visit his brother. When Busuttil called, he said he was “on the way”. He appeared agitated when he got home, saying he needed drugs but had no money.
The woman said she left at around 11pm and did not see him again.
Interrogating the other suspects
11.10am Meanwhile, officers also interrogated the other two suspects.
The Romanian woman answered all questions. She told officers that she lived with Ramzi Abukem [the other person suspected by police] in Msida. She had seen Busuttil there on March 28 and knew that Abukem owed Farrugia some money.
Farrugia had asked Abukem to call someone to pick him up, because he had no phone credit. And he then left, likely by taxi.
Abukem told officers that Busuttil had come to his Msida home on the evening of March 28. Busuttil had then used his phone to call his taxi driver, Mario Farrugia [the victim], at around 9.50pm.
That was the last call Farrugia received, the inspector testifies, and it was when his phone was traced as leaving Pembroke.
'I've washed the entire place with bleach'
11.02am Officers searched the property and seized a number of items: Busuttil’s phone, nine pocket knives, a bullet and a dark jacket they suspected was the one worn by the man seen exiting Farrugia’s car on the CCTV footage.
As officers searched, Busuttil's mother kept berating them, telling them "I've washed the entire place using hygiene [bleach]".
Forensic experts, however, noted traces of blood on a wall outside Busuttil's room, and took a sample.
That was an important piece of information, Camilleri tells the court.
Arresting the prime suspect
10.58am Inspector Camilleri delves into some detail about the operation to arrest Busuttil.
Officers knocked on Busuttil’s door but nobody replied. But they could hear people inside and officers who were circling the building spotted people in the kitchen.
So they forced their way in, as Busuttil was known to have escaped arrest attempts in the past. Inside, they found Busuttil, his brother and parents.
Busuttil was arrested. The operation was recorded using police bodycams. Busuttil was “very agitated”, chain-smoking and demanding to see what proof officers had and saying he wanted a lawyer.
Camilleri, as an aside, says that Busuttil's parents seemed to be more concerned about damage to their front door than the fact that their son was being arrested in connection with murder.
Arrest warrants for three suspects
10.55am An autopsy confirmed that Farrugia had been stabbed around 45 times in the upper chest using a double-edged knife. He may have been stabbed right by the boot of the car.
Camilleri then obtained arrest warrants for three people – Elliot Paul Busuttil, Ramzi Abdulhafid Ib Abukem [the call to Farrugia that drew him out of Pembroke came from his phone] and a Romanian woman who had spoken to Farrugia on the phone on March 28 and 29.
The woman was arrested in Mosta. Abukem was arrested at a Sliema hotel, along with his Colombian girlfriend. Busuttil was arrested in Attard.
Decades-old trauma
10.50am Camilleri says Farrugia was especially troubled by this because of an incident in his past: around 30 years ago, he had been manhandled by a taxi driver and had remained traumatised by that incident.
The inspector tells the court that a neighbour had mentioned that incident to officers. Busuttil's defence team objects, saying this is testimony about opinion, not facts.
Farrugia told his brother about drug dealing clients
10.49am Meanwhile, work was also under way to learn more about Farrugia.
Officers spoke to his brother, Joseph, who lived abroad, and Joseph’s wife. They also spoke to Farrugia’s nephew and a female neighbour who had filed the missing person report.
Farrugia lived alone and was a loner with no friends. He had no children and nobody visited him except for members of his own family.
Camilleri says Farrugia had been medically boarded out and worked as a taxi driver to supplement his disability pension.
In March, his brother had visited him and was struck by something Mario Farrugia told him.
“Mario was worried because he was getting taxi driving jobs from two drug dealers who wanted him to ferry them around,” Camilleri recounts. “They paid him very little.”
The magistrate asks Camilleri for more detail.
“They [the dealers] were basically using his services because they did not drive,” he explains. Farrugia had a taxi permit, he confirms.
CCTV evidence
10.42am CCTV footage further confirmed the police’s thesis. Around 101 excerpts were gathered. In each one, officers could either see Farrugia’s Peugeot car, Farrugia, Busuttil, or all three.
At 12.43am the Peugeot was caught by a speed camera in Attard. At 6.20am they saw the car being parked in Qormi and the masked man, who officers believe was Busuttil, walk away.
Phones moved in tandem
10.38am Officers found that Busuttil and Farrugia had exchanged a number of calls between March 28 until the victim’s mobile went dead.
On March 28 at around 9pm, Farrugia’s phone was traced to Pembroke [where he lived] while Busuttil’s was in Msida. Farrugia then received a call and went to Msida – his phone pinged that it was in that town at 9.48pm that evening.
From then until his phone was switched off, the two devices moved together, suggested Busuttil and Farrugia were together.
Until 12.24am that night, the devices were traced to Attard. Then to Marsa. At 1.30am, the devices moved to Msida. Then at 1.42am, they were in Marsa. The two devices were also traced to Marsa at 2.35am that night. But then Farrugia’s phone went offline.
Farrugia’s phone was switched on for four seconds at around 6am, Camilleri says. At that point, it was traced to Attard, as was Busuttil’s.
“We knew that Elliot [Busuttil, the accused] lived in Attard,” Camilleri says. “And Mario’s [Farrugia, the victim] phone was linked to the antenna closest to his home. Those are the facts,” he adds.
Who was the man that parked Farrugia's car?
10.31am Officers then got to work on the case.
The first challenge was to establish how long Farrugia’s car had been parked in that Qormi spot.
CCTV footage gave them the answer: the car was parked there on March 30 at around 6am. Video showed a man in black, wearing a black face mask, getting out of the car. He was holding a blue towel, which he wiped his hands on.
The man then walked along the valley, past the Qormi boċċi club.
Forensic experts at the Qormi site where Farrugia's body was discovered.. Photo: Matthew MirabelliCamilleri says officers immediately suspected it was the accused, Elliot Paul Busuttil, “but we remained open-minded”.
They got call profiles – a list of calls made and received – for numbers registered to Busuttil and Farrugia.
A watch, but nothing else
10.27am Forensic experts searched the badly decomposed body and found nothing save for a Casio watch.
Forensic expert Mario Scerri determined that the man had been dead for at least six days. That gave officers the first indication that it might be the missing man, Farrugia. Camilleri says relatives of Farrugia also believed it was him.
The corpse was taken to the mortuary while the car was towed away.
Body discovery was video recorded
10.25am The car was locked, so Camilleri dispatched an officer to Farrugia’s Pembroke apartment to look for a spare key. Luckily, there was one.
Officers waited for duty magistrate Gabriella Vella to get to the scene before they opened the car.
Inside the boot, they found a male corpse, facing up. His face was covered with a jumper or t-shirt. His torso was bloodied. Everything indicated a stabbing, he testifies. The entire process was video recorded, Camilleri says.
Inspector Camilleri testifies
10.21am Inspector Wayne Camilleri - the man leading the prosecution in this case - is the next witness.
He got involved in the case on April 5, once police located Farrugia’s car, a Peugeot, in Qormi.
Camilleri went onsite and met a number of other inspectors and vice squad officers there. Nobody had touched the car and the crime scene was preserved.
Camilleri recalls a nasty smell, “like that of someone or something dead”, close to the boot of the car. There were also traces of a reddish fluid.
Identifying Farrugia's body
10.17am Officers used a spare car key they found at Farrugia’s house to open the car’s boot.
Inside, they found a male body with his face covered. He was wearing turquoise trousers and a white shirt. The body could not be identified, though relatives told the inspector that it was probably Farrugia.
Days later, DNA tests confirmed that the body was his. The missing person case file was then closed, Tabone says.
Busuttil’s lawyer, Edward Gatt, asks the inspector whether she cautioned Busuttil when she called him up.
“No, I was following up a missing person at the time,” she replies.
The magistrate asks whether she ever saw Busuttil face-to-face. Tabone says no, that today is the first time she is seeing him.
Flies and a rotten smell
10.14am Farrugia’s car was finally found at Wied is-Sewda in Qormi. Tabone was among the officers who went to the scene.
The car was dirty, splattered with blood rain. The smell of something rotten filled the air. Flies buzzed around. There were splashes of blood on the car’s mudguard and around its boot, she testifies.
Relative knew of 'trouble with a drug dealer'
10.12am The police then issued a missing person notice for Farrugia, along with a photo of him. They received a report of a sighting close to Birkirkara Church and searched the area, but found nothing.
Then a female relative of Farrugia’s got in touch and told them that he had been having trouble with a drug dealer.
Accused knew the victim
10.10am The police then got a list of people who Farrugia had recently spoken to on the phone, and started calling the numbers one by one.
One of those numbers belonged to the accused, Busuttil. Busuttil confirmed that he knew Farrugia, as he often drove him (Busuttil) around. Police told Busuttil to keep them posted if he heard from him.
A quiet man
10.08am Tabone recalls that they also found some pills scattered on a table at Farrugia’s house. They did not know what the pills were.
Officers spoke to neighbours. One, Joan Camilleri, told them that she had last spoken to him some days before. She described him as a quiet man who often gave away fruit and vegetables to his neighbours. But his health had deteriorated after the recent death of his mother and Camilleri suspected he might be suffering from depression.
The neighbour told the police that Farrugia hadn’t taken his rubbish out in recent days and had left a lamp switched on.
What happened after Farrugia was reported missing?
10.04am Inspector Dorianne Tabone is the first witness in the case.
Tabone tells the court that on April 1 she was informed that Farrugia had been reported missing by a neighbour who was meant to meet him but could not get in touch with him.
Police entered Farrugia’s home, she testifies. They found a mouldy pot on the stove and cash receipts of recent purchases. Farrugia’s car was last tracked to an industrial estate in Kordin, close to pest control company Comtec.
Mario Farrugia, the murder victim, was reported missing some days before his body was found. Photo: Malta PoliceCase begins
9.59am The case begins. Busuttil moves to the bench.
He will be defended by lawyers Edward Gatt and Ishmael Psaila.
Inspector Wayne Camilleri will lead the prosecution, with the help of lawyers George Camilleri, Kaylie Bonnett and Maria Schembri from the attorney general’s office.
Accused in court
9.42am Today’s hearing will take place in hall 6 on the ground floor of the Valletta law courts. Busuttil, wearing a suit with a checked shirt, is escorted into the courtroom.
He takes a seat at the back of the hall, waiting for the magistrate, Astrid May Grima, to wrap up another case being heard.
The hearing was scheduled to begin at 9.15am, but things are running slightly behind schedule.
Busuttil's arrest
9.20pm Busuttil was one of four people arrested by the police last month in connection with the murder, but is so far the only person to have been charged with the crime.
His alleged victim, Mario Farrugia, was found dead inside the boot of a car in Qormi.
According to sources, the police's case against Busuttil hinges on a drop of blood found inside the home of Busuttil's mother. The blood, which was found inside a bathroom, allegedly matched that of the murder victim.
Welcome
9.15am Good morning and welcome to this live blog. We're at the Valletta law courts this morning, where we'll be bringing you live updates in the case against Elliot Paul Busuttil.