Accused is no monster, defence counsel insists

A lawyer yesterday told jurors that his client, who is standing trial for trying to kill his wife, was not the monster the prosecution was painting him to be.

"In life, man sometimes faces circumstances he does not always have control on as they are brought about by others. The prosecution has not proven that Paul Caruana contributed to the circumstances he was in. He is not the monster the prosecution is saying had the intention to kill his wife," lawyer Emmanuel Mallia said.

Dr Mallia, who is representing Mr Caruana together with lawyer Giannella Caruana Curran, was addressing jurors, for the last time, during his rejoinder to the arguments made by the prosecution.

Mr Caruana, 34, of Zejtun, is pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of his wife Sandra in a car on June 12, 2003.

The prosecution is arguing that when Mr Caruana got in the car with his wife, who had turned up outside his garage to speak to him, he produced a knife and stabbed her with the intention to kill her.

In his evidence on Tuesday, the accused said that when the incident happened he was in a state of psychological turmoil triggered by the fact that he suspected his wife was cheating on him and that he had been threatened with death by her siblings just a day before.

He said that on the day of the incident he only took the knife in the car because he had just used it to open a bag of pigeon food. When his wife and her sister told him they would not let him out of the car, unless he bound himself to give up his children and his home, he panicked and brandished the knife to try to get out of the car.

At yesterday's sitting, jurors first heard Senior Counsel to the Republic Mark Said, prosecuting, argue that, although Mr Caruana was under psychosocial pressure on the day of the incident, this did not mean he had not formed an intention to kill his wife.

Mr Caruana knew he was going down and wanted to take with him the person he thought was responsible for his situation. His actions were a reflection of his intention to kill his wife, Dr Said insisted.

Dr Mallia rebutted this argument, insisting that his client should not to be found guilty of attempted murder as he had hit his wife with the knife only because he had been trapped in the car.

As he presented two lines of defence, Dr Mallia said Mr Caruana was to be found guilty of involuntary injuring his wife or, if anything, of seriously injuring her while in a state of mental agitation.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono then started the summing up of the trial which he is expected to conclude this morning before jurors retire to deliberate.