'I was in the wrong place at the wrong time' - accused

Godfrey Ellul yesterday told jurors in his trial on drug conspiracy that he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances when he was arrested by police after falling from a height of three storeys in his bid to escape them.

Ellul took the witness stand in his defence and told jurors he had had absolutely nothing to do with whatever had been going on in the flat and had been inside just three minutes when the police raided the place.

He said he had gone inside the flat only to hurry a friend he had taken there because he wanted to return home before his wife realised he had gone out and had panicked when he realised his friend and the flat owner were doing drugs and tried to escape.

Ellul, 54, of St Julian's, is pleading not guilty to drug conspiracy, heroin possession with intent and cocaine possession. His trial before Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono started on Wednesday.

He yesterday gave a chronology of the events which led to his hospitalisation and arrest and explained how the phone rang at his house at about 5.30 p.m. on March 6, 1997, and he picked it up. It was Joanne Vella.

He explained that he had gone out with Vella about a year before. Vella asked him how he was and he told her he was fine and was leading a normal life, that he was now a family man and his relationship with his wife had gone back to normal. His wife had just left the apartment and has since left him.

Vella asked him to lend her Lm50 but he told her he no longer carried any money on him. Ellul said his father had died and had left him quite a bit of money, which was why he thought Vella had called him. His father died in 1995 and had left him well over Lm100,000 but it was now nearly all gone.

Ellul said he explained to her that he only had Lm2 but she kept insisting and asked him if he knew anyone else who could lend her the money.

He suggested a Keith Rizzo but she told him she had already called him. Ellul said Vella asked him to go and meet her because she needed to talk to someone and then adopted a threatening tone and told him she could ruin his marriage.

He got into his car and drove to Sta Marija Estate in Mellieha. When he arrived she got into the car and again asked him for money but he explained to her that "I did not go out any more, that I was now an ordinary family man". He told her he would be willing to drive her if she thought she could borrow the money from someone else.

"She got out of the car and went to make some phone calls from a phone box. I had used my Lm2 for petrol because I had decided it was better if I got rid of it.

"But she came back smiling and I asked her what had happened and she told me that she had called Rizzo and he had suggested that she ask XY (whose name is not being published by court order). She had then called XY and he had told her he would lend her the money."

Ellul said he drove Vella to Zurrieq although he panicked a little at how much time the whole matter was taking. He explained that he had been "good" for the previous six months and knew he had to be home by 7.30 p.m. when his wife returned home or she would become very suspicious.

Ellul said he had never been to XY's house before and Vella had to show him how to get there. He parked outside and told her to hurry up because he had to be home.

"I waited outside. Every minute seemed like an hour and as the minutes passed, I became impatient and got out of the car and knocked on the door.

"She opened the door in her underwear. I asked her why she was undressed and she told me to get in and close the door and explained that she had had to be a bit persuasive to get the money.

"I told her to get ready because I was leaving in five minutes with or without her. We had gone up a lot of stairs and thrashed the argument on the landing upstairs.

"When I told her I would leave without her, she became threatening again. She told me: 'Don't push me, you know I can ruin your life and I will.' and I begged her to hurry and told her I had been kind to her."

Ellul said Vella told him to wait in the kitchen and showed him the way through a bedroom.

"XY was lying on the bed with a pillow covering his genitals and he averted his face. I had not been inside the flat more than three minutes when the doorbell rang and it was the police.

"I was wondering why XY did not answer the door, I thought maybe he was worried it was his girlfriend. When we learnt it was the police, Vella gave me a pipe and told me to get rid of it for her and I got really angry with her.

"'I've been waiting all this time and you were having sex and doing drugs,' I told her. I went absolutely out of my mind. I knew that if my wife found out, she would leave me and tried to find a way out. I went running like crazy when I realised they had been doing drugs.

"I went up to the roof and started jumping from one roof to the other. But I jumped, thinking I was going to land on the next roof, and landed down the shaft in a concrete skip. I felt myself falling and rolled myself into a ball. I don't know what happened then. I must have fainted. I came to about two hours later and I was all broken to pieces.

"I tried to shout for help but I could hardly breathe because my front and back ribs were broken. I could not move because I had broken my spine. There was a length of pipe and I used it to bang against the concrete. I was banging away and a dog was barking.

"I had nearly given up hope when a man appeared on the spot where I had jumped and called out to me. I told him to call a doctor quickly. I remember the ambulance coming and someone saying she could not feel my heart beat.

"I woke up again in the ambulance in terrible pain. I was in agony and asked them to give me something for the pain but I was told that my heart was only beating five times a minute and it had to reach 20 before they could give me anything.

"I slipped away again and woke up in hospital for a few seconds. The next time I regained consciousness it was Sunday morning and my wife and sister were sitting next to the hospital bed and were asking me what on earth I had done to myself."

Ellul said the first time he saw XY was when he went to hospital for a sitting in which the magistrate heard his evidence in XY's case. He had not seen his face at the apartment because he turned his face. He remembered telling his wife he did not think XY was the guy because he had a different impression of him.

"They asked me if I had bought any drugs from him and I said I had not."

Ellul said he was paralysed in bed for a year and eight months and had been told he had a 20 per cent chance of recovering. He had septicaemia and meningitis while he was in hospital.

When the inspector went to hospital to question him, he had been on a morphine substitute and was in a lot of pain.

"The last thing I wanted to do was talk. I was in terrible pain, you cannot imagine. I was getting dizzy when he was asking the questions. I had fallen three storeys."

Ellul said XY was the biggest liar he had met in his life because he had nothing to do with whatever went on in XY's apartment.

He had not been to his flat before the day of the police raid and neither had he met him in bars.

Ellul admitted he used to smoke cocaine but said he had not been smoking on the day of the police raid.

"Had I been smoking, I would not have moved from the flat because cocaine usually induces me to a stupor. I usually only take it lying down because if I'm standing up, I fall over.

"Had I been on drugs I would have been calmer and not panicked like I did. I had been on probation and my urine was being tested every fortnight and I was clean. I was completely and utterly off drugs."

Ellul said a small dose of cocaine cost about Lm40 and there must have been about Lm1,000 worth in the flat.

Earlier, Mr Justice Galea Debono heard XY, after giving a ruling ordering that he be brought before him at all costs after hearing that XY had checked himself into Mount Carmel Hospital a couple of days previously.

Three hours later, XY took the witness stand and the judge explained to him that since the criminal case against him had been decided, he need not be afraid that he could say anything which could incriminate him.

Mr Justice Galea Debono warned XY to tell the truth and assured him he had nothing to worry about.

XY explained that he had been living in Zurrieq in March 1997. The police knocked at his door on March 6 and he looked out of a window on the first floor to see who was at the door and then went to open it immediately. He said that it took him about three to six seconds and denied trying to hide anything before opening the door.

The police searched the house and found some cocaine but he did not remember exactly where.

Prosecutor Mark Said asked XY if he knew what heroin was and he said he had heard of it and had even seen it once. XY said he had never taken heroin, only a little cocaine every now and then.

XY said Vella and Ellul had arrived at his house about an hour before the police turned up but when the police went inside Ellul was no longer there.

He explained that Vella and Ellul had gone to his house about four times that day and that they usually went there to "smoke it" or to leave cocaine and heroin at his house for him to keep.

XY said Ellul had asked him to keep the drugs at his house and he accepted because he was scared of him.

He said he had hidden some behind the bathroom mirror but did not remember hiding drugs in a sugar jar.

XY admitted he had first told police that the heroin and cocaine found at his house were his and he had bought them from an Arab man he met in Republic Street for Lm40 a gramme.

He also told police he had bought heroin with intention to sell it but never did. XY said that the first statement was a figment of his imagination and he had returned to police headquarters the next day to tell the truth.

In his second statement, he said he had met Ellul the first time at Golden Seven in Sliema, on February 25, 1997. They met up the next day and the day after that but drugs were never mentioned. A few days later, however, Ellul went to his house with a bag of cocaine and heroin.

He told Ellul he did not want any part in it and asked him to leave but Ellul hit him on the chest and told him: "You'd better keep the bag here, or else..." Ellul also told him that if he did not cooperate he would not see the light of day.

XY said he was scared of Ellul and agreed to keep the drugs at his house. Ellul eventually went to his house to separate the drugs into sachets.

He had no idea why Ellul could not keep the drugs at his house.

The trial continues this morning.

Senior counsel for the republic Dr Mark Said is prosecuting.

Dr Joseph Brincat is appearing for Ellul.