• 67-year-old jeweller unresponsive after beating with knife handle
• Victim 'continued to be beaten after calling for help'
• Woman 'hinted' at robbery plan weeks before to prison inmate
• Trio found hiding in abandoned house with jewellery, money
• Accused tattooed name of accomplice after 20-minute robbery

A woman involved in the trio who allegedly attacked and left for dead the owner of a Żurrieq jewelry shop had hinted to a fellow inmate at Corradino about the intended robbery a few weeks beforehand, a court heard.

Joe Carabott, 67, was beaten unconscious after he called out for help during the robbery, the inspector leading the investigation told the court on Thursday.

Details of the plot, which left the victim fighting for his life, emerged at the first hearing of the compilation of evidence against Donna Borg Sciberras, Mohamed Anas Boualam and Zouhair Hadoumi who deny attempted murder and violent aggravated theft.

During lengthy testimony, prosecuting inspector Lydon Zammit told the court how investigators pieced together evidence, ultimately tracking down the suspects to an abandoned house metres away from the Sliema police station.

He described how the victim was found face down, his head in a pool of blood and unconscious.

The discovery

The court heard how the family of the 67-year-old owner of the jewellery shop on Dun Ġuzepp Zammit became concerned after he failed to call for his wife as planned at around 7.15pm on August 25.

His son headed to the shop to check, finding the shutter of the shop down and the front door closed. 

He somehow managed to open the shutter, just enough to catch sight of his father, lying on the floor in the back of the shop, slightly moving his bound feet and making some sound. 

Police and paramedics were alerted and smashed a side shop window to gain access to the victim who had head injuries. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and in danger of dying. 

Two large safes inside the back room were open and so was another smaller safe. Gold items were missing from the showcases and the cash register drawer was also emptied. 

Piecing together the evidence 

The inspector said that CCTV footage showed the suspects were not masked and although one of them wore a cap, their faces were visible.

Borg Sciberras, whose face was familiar in police circles, was the first to be identified, followed by Anas. 

Investigators discovered the trio had reached Żurrieq that evening after booking a cab through a number, whose owner was 'Anas'.

They were dropped off near the parish church, walked towards their destination and crossed the street opposite the shop. 

Some twenty minutes later, they stepped out again and pulled down the shutter, then headed on foot to Blue Grotto Avenue where they left in another taxi. 

That second taxi was not booked, with the driver calling out to Anas, saying his name, and all three got in.

They returned to a Żebbuġ residence from where they first headed out earlier that afternoon. 

When it was searched, a resident told police that Anas lived there in a downstairs room which he had lately been sharing with a woman called Donna. 

Inside that residence, police found a bag of 620 ecstasy pills and a jacket that matched one seen in footage from the crime scene, as well as a small white price tag like others seen at the shop.

They also found a tiny studded earring and a small pearl just beneath the front doorstep. 

As more information came in, police eventually tracked the trio to an abandoned residence on Manuel Dimech Street Sliema, just metres away from the police station. 

They later discovered that the place had formerly been the home of Hadoumi’s mother. 

When the officers forced their way in at around 7.15pm on Sunday, they found Borg Sciberras on the roof of the neighbouring building and Hadoumi was caught in the garden of another abandoned building some five roofs away.

Anas was holed up in a small space. 

Cash, gold, watches, price tags and empty jewellery boxes 

As police searched the house where the suspects appeared to have been living, they came across a black handbag containing €1,785 in cash and a manbag with €440 in cash. 

Inside that manbag was a gold cross, another white price tag like the ones in the shop and the Zebbuġ residence along with Hadoumi’s personal documents. 

Inside a black haversack on a bed, police found two wrist watches. 

One of those was later identified by a customer who had dropped off two watches for repairs at the victim’s shop, shortly before the robbery. 

The victim had placed the watches in a black pouch he usually carried around with him, containing his wallet, ID card and other personal items. 

That pouch was subsequently retrieved by a third party who spotted it in the sea as he headed his boat into the Msida marina and took it to the police station.  A small red hammer was found in the black pouch.

Inside the Sliema house police found a bag containing gold items and small boxes stamped with the jeweller’s logo and Zurrieq address. 

More of the same kind of boxes were later discovered in another abandoned building opposite the marina in Pieta, but no gold was found there. 

Suspects’ versions

Anas denied that he was the one who beat the victim, saying that he was on site. 

Hadoumi supplied more information, explaining how he met the other two at a Sliema cafeteria a couple of days before the robbery. 

He was told about the plot and on that Friday, they called him to join them at the Żebbuġ residence from where Anas booked the cab that drove them to Żurrieq. 

He blamed Anas for the beating and described the dynamics of the robbery. 

When he and Borg Sciberras entered the shop, they hit the victim with the handle of a knife hidden in her bosom.

She later denied that, Inspector Zammit said.

His role was to help tie up the victim, smash the showcases and seize the valuables, Hadoumi claimed. 

He also described how his “burlier” accomplice had allegedly been called for assistance and had grabbed the victim by the neck, floored him and beat him up. 

Borg Sciberras told police that they had got the shop’s location through Google Maps and also that a former fellow inmate had told her that there were no security cameras in the shop. 

She said that Hadoumi was the one who gave the victim the worst beating.

She told police that after they first tied up the victim, he began to shout. That was when he was attacked again. Then for the next 15 minutes or so he made no other reaction.

They smashed the showcases with a hammer. 

Borg Sciberras said her role was to snatch the gold from the shop window and counter.

Mere hours after the robbery, the trio sold some of the booty as they moved from Zebbug, to Pieta and finally to Sliema.

In the following hours, Borg Sciberras tattooed the name of one of her accomplices with whom she had a relationship.

That name was ‘Anas.’

The inspector told the court that a Corradino inmate who heard about the robbery spoke to a police officer and claimed that Borg Sciberras had hinted to her about the robbery weeks before.

Two eyewitnesses also gave evidence before magistrate Ian Farrugia about spotting suspicious people outside the shop at about 6pm on the day of the incident.

One resident saw a woman, a thin man and a large man wearing a top with '35' printed on it entering the shop. The resident was able to identify this man in court as Anas.

A woman saw two 'suspicious-looking' men leave the shop, speaking a language she did not understand but that was neither Maltese nor English. 

At the end of the sitting the court declared that there was sufficient primae facie evidence for the accused to stand trial on indictment. 

The case continues in October.

Attorney General lawyers Anthony Vella and Kaylie Bonnet prosecuted together with Inspectors Lydon Zammit, Stephen Gulia, Jonathan Cassar and Sean Pawney.

Legal aid lawyers Brandon Muscat, Mark Mifsud Cutajar and Maria Karlsson are assisting the accused.

Lawyers Stephen Tonna Lowell and Ana Thomas appeared on behalf of the victim.