To kill or not to kill, that is the question, jurors told

Jurors are today expected to deliver their verdict in the trial of a Bulgarian man charged with trying to kill his former partner when he sneaked into her bedroom and stabbed her on Christmas morning two years ago.

Petko Dimitrov Krushkov, 37, is pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of Therese Cachia, in her St Paul's Bay apartment on December 25, 2004, at about 8 a.m.

The bill of indictment alleges that, on Christmas morning, Mr Krushkov sneaked into Ms Cachia's apartment while she was in bed with another man. He went there armed with a kitchen knife and, on finding her with the other man, he was overcome by jealousy and tried to kill her by stabbing her.

Mr Krushkov argues he never intended to kill anyone. In his testimony on Monday he admitted entering Ms Cachia's house uninvited because he wanted to verify that she was with another man. Up till that day, Mr Krushkov said, he believed she was his girlfriend.

He said he took the knife with him just in case her new partner, Jesmond Scerri, would assault him.

He also said he could not explain what came over him when he stabbed Ms Cachia - the woman he loved.

During yesterday's sitting, characterised by legal submissions, jurors heard defence counsel Malcolm Mifsud outline his case.

He said his client was an honest man who told the truth from the start. When the police first spoke to him, Mr Krushkov immediately said he had no intention of killing anybody and, since then, he had always been consistent in his version.

The lawyer said that although his client admitted that he had stabbed Ms Cachia, he always maintained he never intended to put her life in danger. The fact that there was no intention meant he could not be found guilty of attempted murder.

The lawyer asked jurors: "Are you morally convinced that when my client stabbed Ms Cachia he actually wanted to kill her? To my mind there is a lot of doubt," he said.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara, prosecuting, argued that Mr Krushkov's actions were a demonstration of his intentions.

The accused, he said, was a jealous man who did not want to accept that Ms Cachia had ended their two-year relationship and so he acted out of revenge.

Dr Barbara told jurors this case should not be difficult to decide.

"The moment he stabbed her is the key to the whole case... At that moment he wanted to kill her," Dr Barbara said.

Jurors are expected to retire to deliberate today after Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono completes the summing-up of the trial.