Daphne Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma was three years ago just like any other name, OPM head of customer care Sandro Craus said in court on Tuesday.

Facing a rapid line of questioning when testifying at the public inquiry into the journalist's assassination, Craus said that at the time of Theuma's engagement, he had no recollection of the man or of the phantom job he was handed from Castille. 

The inquiry is meant to establish whether the state could have done anything to prevent the murder of Caruana Galizia.

As the questioning turned to self-confessed murder middleman, Craus said he did not know the man, denied taking a snapshot with him and explained that when the story about the phantom job came to light, he had checked with his staff whether Theuma had ever visited their office. 

Confronted with Theuma’s own testimony at the murder compilation, claiming that he had received a call from Craus himself telling him about the next day’s appointment with Keith Schembri at Castille, Craus replied, “I don’t recall that, because we call hundreds [of persons].”

“You either deny or you forget,” Judge Lofaro said.

“I don’t remember,” came the reply.

“But this is a special case,” exclaimed board chairman Judge Michael Mallia.

Craus replied: “It’s special today. Three years ago Melvin Theuma was just a name. Today everyone knows who Melvin Theuma is. Then it was just like 'Joe Borg'".

“We’re not interested in the criminal proceedings. But if Melvin Theuma is believed, you have a problem,” Judge Said Pullicino advised.

“And a big one indeed,” Judge Lofaro remarked. 

Asked by parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi whether former chief of staff Schembri had asked him to call someone about an employment problem, in the run up to the 2017 general election, Craus again insisted, “I don’t recall,” not excluding that possibility.

“Did you take that photo of Keith Schembri and Melvin Theuma at Castille?” Azzopardi pressed on.

“If I’m telling you that I don’t remember, then I don’t,” Craus said.

Asked about a campaign seeking to denigrate the fact that Caruana Galizia's laptop went missing after the murder, Craus "categorically" denied instructions to coordinate such a campaign from Castille.

“Had there been that direction I would have been the first one not to write nor to follow,” said Craus, prompting the board to observe that the head of customer care, appointed as a person of trust, had liked a comment posted by former OPM official Neville Gafà.

“Why is someone hiding Daphne’s laptop?” that post read.

“How does this feature within the terms of reference of the inquiry?” the witness’s lawyer Ramona Attard intervened. 

The board asked the witness if he read Caruana Galizia’s blog.

“Not much… I did not have much time, working long hours from 8am to 9pm or later,” Craus said. 

“Did you upload any Facebook posts about Daphne?” came the next question. 

“Only once,” the witness replied, adding that he had pulled down the post soon after. 

However, the board pointed out that they had come across at least three posts wherein Craus had used derogatory or sarcastic comments about the journalist, branding her in Facebook posts a “liar… ħadra…, kittieba moqżieża… the Bidnija princess.”

“This does not tally with what you said earlier, that you did not follow her blog,” chief justice emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino remarked.

“I didn’t say that I didn’t read her blog but that I did not do so on a daily basis,” Craus said. 

His legal counsel said that the posts dated back three years or so and suggested that copies thereof ought to be handed over to the witness to aid his memory.