A 68-year-old man was charged on Saturday with murdering his own son inside his Għaxaq home. 

Salvu Dalli stood in the dock with the help of a walking stick as he pleaded not guilty to murder charges.  

Dalli's son, 37-year-old Antoine, was found by police with a gunshot wound to his stomach inside a bathroom at his father's house on Triq il-Gudja on Friday morning. 

The elder Dalli was taken into custody on Friday morning after police responding to a disturbance call found blood drops in a corridor leading to the bathroom, with Antoine Dalli inside.

The suspected murder weapon – a shotgun - was found on a bed in the house. 

Speaking at a crime conference on Saturday, a police spokesperson said investigators believe the murder was motivated by a family feud and a police spokesperson said that district police had in the past received a number of reports about the two men. 

Both men were known to the police and had faced charges concerning the family feud in the past, though a spokesperson declined to provide details. The accused is no stranger to police: known locally as ‘danger man’, Salvu Dalli was handed a suspended jail term just six months ago after he admitted to having stabbed his daughter-in-law with a penknife. 

A police spokesperson said that it was Salvu Dalli himself who answered the door
when police showed up at the house, in response to an anonymous call about a disturbance at the house and another reporting a gunshot. 

Salvu Dalli being driven away from court following his arraignment on Saturday. Photo: Jonathan Borg

He appeared in court on Saturday wearing grey trousers and a blue shirt, with his two other sons seated behind him. 

There, he was charged with murdering his son Antoine, possessing and firing a gun and having breached the terms of his suspended jail term. 

His lawyers Lennox Vella and Marisa Mifsud told magistrate Astrid May Grima that Dalli had been receiving hospital treatment until a month ago and would require further treatment while in custody. 

Dalli did not file a request for bail and was taken into custody. The court ordered that the director of prisons ensure the accused was medically examined and given the treatment he needed. 

Inspectors Keith Arnaud and Roderick Attard prosecuted. 

Lawyers Kathleen Grima and Franco Debono appeared on behalf of the victim’s family - a wife and two young children aged just four and three.