Updated - Adds evidence by Dr Mario Scerri - A friend of Therese Agius, whose decomposing body was found at sea 11 years ago, had told the police that the man standing trial for her murder had told him he had got rid of her body by “anchoring it out at sea”, a court was told today.

The body of Therese Agius, bound at the feet and legs and with a rope around her neck, was found off Delimara in October 1999.

Joseph Azzopardi, 40, of Tarxien is pleading not guilty to the murder of Ms Agius and trafficking in heroin.

Former Police Inspector David Saliba testified in court how a friend of Ms Agius, Pawlu Micallef, known as the 'body builder', had told the police that Mr Azzopardi had injected Ms Agius with heroin on her request in the Gzira apartment she rented for prostitution purposes. Ms Agius overdosed, started foaming at the mouth and lost consciousness.

Mr Micallef then saw Mr Azzopardi wrap the young woman in a sheet and carry her to his van.

Mr Micallef, who died in 2006, later said that Mr Azzopardi told him he had disposed of the body by “anchoring it at sea”.

The former inspector said he had also questioned a certain Rodney Vella who had said he met Mr Azzopardi when Ms Agius was still missing. Mr Vella told the police that Mr Azzopardi told him she had died after having overdosed.

Pathologists Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta and Bridget Ellul told the court that the autopsy showed there were no signs indicating that Ms Agius had been beaten. She could have died before being tied up, since the latest time of death was four hours after she was bound.

There were no obvious syringe puncture wounds and but the body had other wounds compatible with fish bites. They said the cause of death could not be established although drowning or a drug overdose could not be excluded.

Forensic expert Mario Scerri said that indications were that Ms Agius had died before her body was thrown into the sea and her body had been in the sea for about a month before it was found.

There were no obvious signs of violence and there were scars compatible to fish bites. There was evidence of a fresh needle mark, identified from heommorage under the skin, on her left hand and toxicology results showed traces of morphine that was the result of heroin breaking down in the body.

The autopsy, he was present for, could not give a clear cause of death. However other results, including toxicology ones, showed that indications were that it was probable that sometime before her death she took an opiate drug that was injected into her arm just a bit before she died. Although it could be that she injected herself, one had to question whether she then tied herself up with the rope, Dr Scerri said. The global picture indicated that it was not probable although it was possible.

At the time there was a lot of pure heroin around that could have led to an overdose through a shutting down of the respiratory centre leading to death. The state of decomposition made if difficult to determine how much drugs had been injected into Ms Agius.

Dr Scerri said there existed an antidote to opiate overdose that could have saved her life if administered at the right time.