Neighbours spill the beans

During the afternoon session, the court heard the evidence that had been given during the compilation stage by two Tunisians, Hyett Attard and her brother Adel Hamdi, who lived in the same block of flats and who could not be traced to testify in the trial as they were abroad.

Hyatt Attard had told the court she lived in a flat underlying the one belonging to Concetta Decelis. It was she who had phoned the police to inform them about what she had seen on Saturday night and Sunday morning after hearing about the body that had been found and seeing the photo of Rachel Bowdler on TV.

She said she recognised Ms Bowdler, as she had seen her twice going into the block of flats the day before she was found dead. Ms Attard said she saw Ms Bowdler and Jason Decelis going upstairs at about 6.30 p.m. She had a small dog in her hand. At about 11 p.m. she saw her walking to the flat again.

Ms Attard said she slept in the room behind the door and usually stayed awake till about 2.30 a.m. to watch Arabic TV stations via satellite.

Ms Attard said one could hear every movement in the flats and at one point she heard some commotion. She heard Jason Decelis and his mother saying "What are we going to do?" and then heard the son say "I will phone Gulija" and later heard him say "I think she died". The witness thought he was referring to the dog. His mother was trying to calm him down all the time. This went on until about 4.30 a.m. when she went to sleep, only to wake up at about 6.30 a.m. because of her brother's alarm clock.

Ms Attard said that as her brother left for work at about 7.30 a.m., she heard noises as if someone was moving some furniture and hitting the railings. She looked and saw Carmel Decelis holding Ms Bowdler from the arms and his son was holding her by her legs.

Ms Attard said the body was not covered and she appeared to be a young woman, with short hair, dressed in black trousers with no shoes on. The girl was then placed in a car and they drove off at speed.

Adel Hamdi said he had seen Ms Bowdler and Jason Decelis the night before as he returned from work and Jason Decelis asked him if he wanted the dog, but the Tunisian said he had no time to look after himself let alone take care of a dog.

As he was going down the stairs on his way to work at about 7.30 a.m. the following morning, he heard someone say "Hold her, hold her as she's going to fall". He saw Jason Decelis and another man lifting Ms Bowdler, who appeared unconscious, from under her arms and legs. Mrs Decelis was at the front door and looked terrified.

He then saw the two men place the girl on the back seat of a grey car he had never seen before. He later recognised the car at the CID yard. Jason Decelis went on the front seat while Mrs Decelis sat in the backseat and Mr Decelis drove the car.

David Gatt, known as il-Gulija, then took the witness stand. He said Jason Decelis had phoned him some three times on his mobile that night and appeared confused. He said Jason Decelis told him he had a girl who had an overdose.

"He asked me to go help him take her to a clinic or hospital, but I told him I had enough problems and did not want to land into more trouble," the witness said.

Under cross-examination, Mr Gatt said he knew Jason Decelis used to see Ms Bowdler, whom he knew only by sight. He denied having ever phoned Ms Bowdler or that she ever phoned him.

Mr Gatt said Jason Decelis told him Ms Bowdler said she had bought the drug from Hyatt Attard, whom they referred to as Heidi.

Citing from a call profile of the mobile number Ms Bowdler had at the time, Martin Fenech, a lawyer in the defence team, noted that the records indicated that Ms Bowdler had phoned Mr Gatt's number twice on April 14 and again on April 18. On May 12 Ms Bowdler called his number at least 15 times, the first call being made at 11.58 a.m., some of the calls remaining unanswered. After four o'clock, there were repeated attempts to call him but calls were answered after 4.30 p.m. and at 5.20 p.m.

Mr Gatt said he only knew the girl by sight and it was possible someone was calling him from her phone but he could not recall who he had spoken to.

The witness testified that he heard about the girl's death from the news and later that morning he went to see Jason Decelis who told him what had happened. He said he was later arrested because he was a drug abuser at the time.

Mr Gatt said Jason Decelis told him he had injected her with salt in a bid to restore her blood pressure. The witness said it was possible he had given him that piece of advice as it had happened to him personally once when he overdosed and someone injected him with saline and he recovered.

Lawyers Chris Cardona, Malcolm Mifsud, Chris Soler and Martin Fenech assisted the accused.

Dr Barbara prosecuted.