Twannie Aquilina was the victim of a gruesome killing of which his mother and stepfather were found guilty. Claudia Calleja returns to the scene.

Sixty years after eight-year-old Twannie Aquilina was found lying in a pool of blood, beaten and partially beheaded in his home in Valletta, his relatives are still carrying the stigma of the case that shocked the nation.

To add to the horror of the murder, his 32-year-old mother Luiga Camilleri, known as Ġiġa, and his stepfather, Leli, then 29, were convicted for the crime.

“If you publish anything about this story, please say that the family are still suffering the stigma to this day. When we walk down the street people still whisper: she’s related to Ġiġa,” said a relative who did not want to be identified.

“Twannie was family. We still honour his memory,” she added.

Twannie was born to Ġiġa before she married Leli. He had a sister, Carmen, also illegitimate – and whose testimony was key in the case.

Apart from them, Ġiġa had another daughter, Marthese, from Leli.

When we walk down the street people still whisper: she’s related to Ġiġa

Not long after the murder, holy pictures featuring the young boy wearing his First Holy Communion suit were circulated – becoming the iconic image of Twannie: the boy killed by his mother.

The case had enormous social repercussions, bringing child abuse to the forefront especially since, during the trial, a picture of neglect and abuse emerged.

Former police commissioner Raymond Zammit wrote a book about the case which he dedicated to all children who suffer abuse.

During his research, Zammit spoke to relatives of the late Twannie. 

“One thing that struck me is how they still had to live with the stigma,” he said, adding that one of the reasons he wrote the book was to lay the facts out clearly and dispel rumours that started circulating. Among them were that Ġiġa and Leli were not married and that Twannie was found inside the washing machine.

“I know of cases of parents scaring their children by using this story and saying: be careful or what happened to Twannie will happen to you… We learn something from every crime.

“We should not forget the case of Twannie. But we should not use this story to hurt others or cause children to be scared,” he added.

The boy who was cruelly abused

On August 23, 1960, Twannie Aquilina’s body was discovered at about 7.45pm in his parents’ two-room apartment at 102, St Dominic Street, Valletta. That same night the Department of Information issued a statement informing the public.

It became the subject of every conversation and the enraged public demanded justice.

Three months later, Ġiġa and Leli were arraigned. The compilation of evidence was held behind closed doors and details only started to emerge when the ban on publication was lifted during the 17-day trial by jury that started on February 25, 1961.

Twannie Aquilina wearing his First Holy Communion suit.

Twannie was murdered between 5.30 and 6.30pm. The primary suspects were the victim’s mother and Leli, a leading marine engineer at HMS St Angelo.

Ġiġa and Leli denied any responsibility. In a statement, Leli said he was out at the time on an errand and Ġiġa recounted she was at a place known as Il-Fossa, not far from her house, with her daughters, playing tombola.

In her statement released the day after the murder Ġiġa said: “When Twannie did not turn up, I sent Carmen to tell him to eat a couple of prickly pears. But the girl came back and told me that, although the lights were on in the apartment, he did not reply.

“I told her he may have fallen asleep and sent her and another girl, Mary, to check whether he was in bed. But they turned back and Mary told me that someone had told Carmen there was blood in the building.

“I therefore decided to go with them and see what happened. I climbed the stairs to see if there really was blood. When I arrived I saw light through a crack in the kitchen door. I pushed the door slightly open and saw Twannie full of blood. As soon as I saw this, I ran downstairs and started shouting: ‘Look what happened to me’.”

Scotland Yard were roped in and forensic evidence began piling up against the couple.

He actually died when he was practically beheaded

An autopsy found several wounds, including deep lacerations in the head, probably caused by a deadbolt. These were enough to have killed the eight-year-old but medical experts concluded he had actually died when he was practically beheaded.

Although no one had actually seen the murder in progress, witnesses soon began to piece things together.

Eight-year-old Carmen Cauchi, a neighbour, said she had seen Twannie fall down a couple of steps before her mother rushed out with her young sister Mary and they left the building, stepping over Twannie’s body on their way out.

Alfred Fitzpatrick, 14, said he saw Ġiġa lifting a motionless Twannie from the stairs and carrying him to her apartment.

He said he was climbing the stairs to his apartment when he heard a faint moan and two or more people running. He also heard the sound of a metal object hitting the ground.

Freddy, as the witness was known, said he returned soon afterwards and waited outside Ġiġa’s apartment, expecting to hear Twannie moaning again and Ġiġa trying to fetch a doctor.

Still in a fit of rage, the man tied Twannie to a balcony and continued to burn him

When he did not see anything, he returned to Il-Fossa. At about sunset, Freddy said he returned and, on his way up, noticed that Ġiġa’s kitchen door was ajar. He stepped inside, where he found Twannie lying on the floor. He knelt down next to him, touched him and called out to him but, when the boy did not reply, Freddy washed his hands and left the apartment.

His fingerprints were found on the scene.

Shocking evidence emerged of the eight-year-old boy’s mistreatment at home, culminating with an incident which sent shivers down the public’s spines.

Twannie had once confessed to his teacher, Rita Micallef, that he had stolen change from the classroom and from his parents to buy himself a treat. Micallef advised Ġiġa to keep an eye on him but, meaning well, asked her not to beat the boy.

Nevertheless, when Twannie was confronted by Leli, he called his teacher a liar, prompting his angry stepfather to tie him to a bed, beat him with a stick and burn him with a cigarette. Still in a fit of rage, the man then tied Twannie to a balcony and continued to burn him. The boy was untied when a neighbour persuaded Leli to stop.

Twannie’s sister Carmen, who was just eight when she testified, said Twannie was washing the floor when he took his father’s tools to repair his shoes. When he had done so, his mother realised what had happened and, scolding him, snatched the tools away.

Overcome by anger, Ġiġa beat Twannie with a leather strap. The boy tried to run away but Ġiġa caught up as Twannie called out to his sister.

Shortly after, Carmen saw Ġiġa walking back inside, carrying Twannie, whom she laid on the bed.

'Ġiġa drew a bread knife from a drawer'

She said she was then asked to fetch Leli from a friend’s garage and, when he arrived and asked what had happened, Ġiġa told him she had found Twannie dead. Carmen said Leli moved Twannie off the bed and lay him down on the floor as Ġiġa drew a bread knife from a drawer and knelt down next to the boy.

Despite having been sent to Il-Fossa to wait for her mother, Carmen said she saw her parents changing their clothes and putting those they had just taken off in the washing machine, together with a bedspread.

Forensic evidence showed there were traces of what could have been blood in the drain of the washing machine.

Eventually, Leli and Ġiġa were both found guilty of murder.

Jurors found Leli guilty against a six-three verdict and he was jailed for 20 years with hard labour. Ġiġa was sentenced to death following a unanimous verdict.

Ġiġa’s lawyer appealed and petitions were made to the governor to spare her life. The death sentence was lifted two weeks later and she was instead jailed for life. Ten years later she walked out of prison a free woman.

‘I am innocent’

In the only interview she ever gave to the press, to the now defunct Church newspaper Il-Ġens, the late Luiga Camilleri insisted she was innocent.

Surrounded by photos of Twannie adorned with flowers and a candle, she said: “My son is a martyr. He is a saint. If you want to be granted some grace, pray for his intercession… if I know who killed my son I am ready to forgive him. If I do not forgive him will I get my son back?”

In an interview with Xarabank in 2012, her daughter Carmen, who now lives in Australia, said she had not told the truth during the trial and insisted that her parents were innocent.

She spoke about seeing a young man stand over her brother’s body – a possible explanation to a set of unmatched fingerprints found on the scene.

Carmen said she hoped investigators would get to the truth of all this and free the family from the stigma they had been carrying all this time.

“We want to know who did it. We suffered a lot. We want to live our last days on earth in peace and not shunned by people as though we are carrying a disease,” she said.

The police told Times of Malta that the investigation “is still ongoing”.