Man charged with wife`s attempted murder

A Siggiewi man accused of trying to kill his wife by firing at her in front of a Qormi supermarket knew that separation proceedings were to commence the following week, his son told a court yesterday.

"On January 15, while I was in court regarding a case filed against my father, he heard Dr (Joseph) Giglio mention that the separation proceedings were about to begin.

"I heard him tell my mother: `You aren`t going to turn up for the proceedings because by then you won`t be around`," Jason Falzon said.

"The first separation sitting was to be on the Thursday following the shooting incident. My father was aware of the scheduled date because I heard the court marshal inform him."

Falzon testified before Magistrate Noel Cuschieri in the compilation of evidence against his father, Anthony, 46, who is pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of his wife, Lourdes, on April 5 at about noon.

He is also charged with seriously injuring her, keeping and carrying a firearm and ammunition without a licence and endangering people`s lives by shooting in public.

Falzon`s son yesterday said his mother, sister and himself no longer lived with his father.

"The day we decided to move out my elder sister called me at work and told me that my father had beaten up my mother again and she was sobbing at home," Jason Falzon said.

"I had seen him beat her before. Sometimes he would use his hands, sometimes a belt and at times he would kick her. When I was younger I used to notice bruises on her body but she would tell me she fell.

"However, as I grew older, I started listening to their fights and I began to notice that she was sad and see her cry. I began to understand what was going on.

"I remember that, about three years ago, I arrived home early on a Sunday and found my father reaching into a drawer for a knife. I told him to put it away.

"He told me to go back to where I had come from or he would use the knife on me. He said he wouldn`t have minded doing so. He dragged me along the corridor and slammed me against the wall-unit," he said.

At this point Falzon stood up and walked out of the courtroom saying he could not take it any more. He did not object to his son testifying in his absence.

Jason Falzon said that since his mother, sister and himself had moved out, his father threatened them and sometimes turned up outside their residence. He said they had spent the first two weeks after they moved out regularly going to a police station for security`s sake and moving from one place to another.

"He always wanted to know my mother`s whereabouts and whether she was seeing another man. He said he would kill her if she did. He came to ask me about her at work about three times," Jason Falzon said.

He explained that on January 15 he went to court regarding one of the cases filed against his father. He decided to drop the charges so long as his father behaved well.

But that day, in court, his father heard Dr Giglio mention the separation proceedings and a court marshal informed him when they would begin. Falzon told his wife she would not make it to the proceedings.

Under cross-examination, Jason Falzon was asked if he hated his father. "I don`t hate him. I feel sorry for what he has done. This is not a father`s behaviour.

"A real father does not threaten his wife and children. Neither does he try to humiliate them... If I hated him I`d resort to violence as he did. I don`t respect him," he said.

Asked if he thought his father loved him, Jason Falzon replied: "I can`t say `yes`."

He also said that since the shooting incident his mother could barely walk or drive and had only left the house to go to an aunt or doctor.

Earlier, Police Inspector Raymond D`Anastas said that on April 5 he was stationed at the Qormi police station and was informed that a man had shot a woman outside Shopwise Supermarket.

He went on site and then walked into the supermarket where he saw Lourdes Falzon seated and her wounds were being treated.

"Mrs Falzon was moaning with pain and told me that her husband had shot her. So the police started looking for him.

"When I went back to the Qormi police station, I was informed that Falzon had turned up at the Siggiewi police station and so I went there.

"When I arrived I asked him what had happened and cautioned him that anything he says may be used against him in a court of law. His first words were `I lost my temper`."

The inspector said that while he was driving Falzon to the police headquarters for questioning he asked him what he had done with the firearm. Falzon told him he had dumped it in Mdina Road while he was driving away from the supermarket. But police did not find any weapons there.

Eventually, Falzon told the police that the firearm was in his Siggiewi property where it was found.

Connie Bartolo testified that on the day of the incident she was walking into the supermarket with a friend of hers when a man and a woman passed between them.

"The man was following the woman and calling out: `Doris I want to speak to you`, but she walked on and started walking faster.

"She was waving her shopping bag towards him and asking him to leave her alone. When my friend pointed out that they were fighting I decided to walk away and heard two loud sounds.

"When I told my husband that there had been shooting he thought I was crazy. I felt weak and passed out to wake up in a health centre."

The woman said that although Falzon resembled the man she saw follow the woman she was not sure it was him.

Bartolo`s friend, Valerie Galea, also testified and said she did not recognise him.

At the end of yesterday`s sitting, Falzon`s lawyer requested bail. Magistrate Cuschieri put off the ruling to this morning.

Police Inspectors Michael Mallia and Raymond D`Anastas are prosecuting.

Dr Albert Libreri is appearing for Falzon and Dr Joseph Giglio is appearing in parte civile for the victim.