A court on Tuesday turned down a request for bail by Roderick Cassar, the man accused of murdering his wife Bernice late last year.

Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi said that no one wanted to detract from the serious nature of the case but the compilation of evidence was at a very mature stage and only one court expert was still to testify.

The lawyer said his client had all family ties in Malta, there was no fear of absconding and he was prepared to abide by all conditions, both financial and electronic tagging, as well as temporary supervision. 

Lawyer Angele Vella from the Attorney General's Office said other civilians were still to testify and the fear of tampering was still real.

Cassar had even called his father-in-law saying that “unless he enjoyed his children, no one else would,” she recalled.

Roderick Cassar was refused bail on Tuesday.

He had also threatened one of the witnesses that he would “pay them all back”.

The lawyer also pointed out that the murder took place while Cassar was under a protection order in favour of his wife and his arrest was a long drawn-out operation, taking police some 17 hours to conclude.

After the shooting, Cassar left the crime scene and then refused to turn himself in even when police were communicating with him outside his residence, thus reflecting his character. 

“A person with a guillotine above his head… can he be trusted?” 

The prosecution thus believed that the accused would not obey court orders if granted bail. 

“He is not capable of obeying any order or the police,” Vella said. 

Defence lawyer Franco Debono pointed out two decrees whereby bail was granted to the two former AFM soldiers accused of murdering Lassana Cisse and another case of Justin Borg, accused of murdering his former partner. 

But Mr Justice Neville Camilleri cut short that line of argument pointing out that “comparisons are odious.”

“The facts can never be identical. Impossible!”, said the judge. 

Debono argued that the charges were identical although the facts were particular to each case. Comparisons with similar cases were meant for uniformity and consistency of decisions.

As for alternative measures for bail, Debono pointed out that in spite of various decrees calling upon the relative authorities to introduce electronic tagging, such a measure had not yet been made available. 

If the court were to order such measure as a condition for bail, the State would have to introduce it, argued the lawyer. 

After hearing submissions the court turned down the request, stating that it was not yet satisfied at this stage that if bail were to be granted the accused would be prepared to abide by conditions imposed upon him by the court. 

AG lawyers Darlene Grima and Anthony Vella also prosecuted. Lawyers Marita Pace Dimech, Stefano Filletti, Anne Marie Cutajar and Rodianne Sciberras are assisting the victim’s family.