The police had had seven reports of incidents involving the same contractor who was working on a site in Sta Venera last March when an adjoining house collapsed, killing resident Miriam Pace, a court heard on Thursday.

Superintendent Robert Vella, handling investigations after the tragic episode, said the reports about Ludvic Dimech or LK Ltd, took place between October 2008 and December 2019.

Days after the Hamrun tragedy, the contractor was involved in a road collapse at Pender Gardens, St Julians.

Obviously [Dimech] is not the only contractor who had such incidents,” Vella pointed out, further noting that some of those reports concerned incidents involving Enemalta cables.

The statements were made in the compilation of evidence against Roderick Camilleri and Anthony Mangion, the two architects facing prosecution over the Sta Venera tragedy.

“Do you confirm that the architects were not newcomers?” parte civile lawyer Joseph Giglio asked.

“No, they were not,” came the reply.

Earlier, the court heard that the Building and Construction Agency had no blacklisting of players in the construction industry and no legal obligation to publish enforcement notices against owners of construction sites.

The head of the agency, Ivor Robinich, explained that there were some 40 employees at the agency at the time of the incident, four of whom were assigned to vetting method statements.

Such vetting, however, did not incorporate an evaluation of the technical content.

It was for the technical experts, not the BCA, to assess the appropriate method to be employed, explained Robinich, noting further that the agency intended to recruit more staff to ensure better scrutiny.

Asked whether the agency had any records of blacklisted contractors, the witness said that there were none. As for enforcement notices issued against site owners, there was no law ordering publication thereof, he said. 

Martin Saliba, executive chairman of the Planning Authority, testified that an appeal to the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal about development permits could only be filed by a registered objector who registers his interest within the legal timeframe of the application.

In this case, there appeared to have been no such registered objectors, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi pointed out., 

Superintendent Vella, confirmed that the day after the collapse, police had been shown photos which pointed at the possibility that onsite machinery might have been moved after the building collapse.

“We were already working on that thesis,” said Vella, explaining how he had proceeded further along those lines once he had obtained a particular photo which he then presented in court. 

Fellow prosecutor Inspector Matthew Galea confirmed that during their interrogation, the architects had explained that no excavation works were supposed to have been ongoing, save for rock sampling on the other side of the site.

Yet, in his statement to the police, Dimech had referred to “excavation on the side of the Pace and Zerafa residences,” making a sketch thereof on a small sheet of paper which was also inserted in the records of the case, the witness explained.

As questions focused on CCTV footage retrieved from stores right opposite the site of the collapse on Abela Scolaro Street, Azzopardi asked about a segment of footage from “camera 28” that was apparently missing.

Footage before and after the collapse was there, but footage right at the time of the incident was not, Azzopardi said.

“Did you place a fixed point officer to make sure that there was no tampering?” he asked.

The inspector explained that a court expert had “immediately” retrieved the footage while the rescue operation was still ongoing and before the victim’s body was discovered under the rubble.

The case continues on Friday.

Magistrate Joseph Mifsud is presiding the case against the two architects, while the contractor and construction worker Nicholas Spiteri have opted to go to trial before the criminal court.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio and David Bonello are appearing for the Pace family. Alfred Abela was also defence lawyer.