A "reluctant" witness in a murder case yesterday told a magistrate he had been forced by the police to release a statement in which he said that his neighbour had commissioned him to kill a woman.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima cautioned 17-year-old Matthew Pace about the consequences of perjury several times during his evidence. He kept insisting that when he released a statement to the police, which he then confirmed to a magistrate conducting an inquiry, he merely confirmed what was said to him by the police, that is, that Ronnie Azzopardi had asked him to kill a certain Mary Rose.

"Police came up with the story (in the statement) and I said 'yes' to everything so that they would let me go... They asked me if it was true that Ronnie had sent me to kill the woman and I said 'yes'... But I told inspector Christopher Pullicino that I didn't know anything," Mr Pace said.

He was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Azzopardi, 33, of Cospicua, who is pleading not guilty to one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder when he planted a bomb in Zejtun on June 18.

Mr Azzopardi is charged with the murder of Angela Bondin and with trying to kill Mary Rose Cassar and her sons Jesmar, 7, Jean Leon, 4, and 20-month old Kevin.

He is also charged with seriously injuring Therese Grima, damaging the property of Antoine Grima and Alexander Grech's van.

When Mr Pace first stepped onto the stand he explained that Mr Azzopardi was his neighbour. When asked what he knew about the case, Mr Pace said he had been forced to release the statement to the police and denied ever mentioning Mr Azzopardi to his social worker.

Police Inspector Carmelo Bartolo, defined Mr Pace as a reluctant witness as he was not giving the same version he had given to the police and during the magisterial inquiry.

When Magistrate Padovani Grima read the previous version he had given she cautioned him on the consequences and told him: "So you invented a story stating that a person commissioned you to kill someone and now you are saying that this was all based on imagination?"

Mr Pace insisted he had gone to court to say the truth. He insisted on this version even after the magistrate gave him 15 minutes to reconsider his position.

At the end of the sitting, the magistrate ordered that Mr Borg be kept under the custody of the courts until this afternoon as she suspected he may be lying under oath.

Lawyer Joseph Giglio, appearing for Mr Azzopardi, insisted that Mr Borg be kept under the custody of court marshals and not police officers in the interest of justice.

The magistrate also heard the evidence of Mrs Grima's husband, Joseph. He said that on June 18 he was on the roof with his wife preparing for the village feast when she pointed out a car that had stopped. A man alighted and placed a white bag near a letter box.

His wife told off the "dirty man" for placing his garbage there and sometime later the couple went downstairs to have lunch.

Mr Grima then went to rest and his wife told him she was going to buy a flag.

"Two minutes after I went to bed I was back on my feet because of an explosion. When I went outside I saw that my wife was burnt. I wanted to send her flying because, at the time, I thought that some insecticide can, from the white bag, had exploded. I then told my son to drive her to hospital."

The witness said his wife was the sort of woman who swept the whole square when she needed to clean their door step.

During a nine-man line up at the police headquarters, Mr Grima said he recognised the man he had seen place the white bag outside his house. He also recognised that same man as the accused.

The case continues this morning.

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