Police still probing 1977 Karin Grech murder

The police are still investigating the case of young Karin Grech who was killed by a letter bomb a few days after Christmas, 31 years ago.

Police Inspector Chris Pullicino testified yesterday that he was in constant contact with the victim's father, Edwin Grech, who had suggested people who could have been involved in the murder. As a result, new lines of investigation had been opened but the officer said he was unable to say anymore because a magisterial inquiry was underway.

The officer was testifying in a case instituted by the Grech family against the Prime Minister, seeking compensation for the incident that, apart from leaving their 15-year-old daughter dead, also injured their son when they opened a letter addressed to Prof. Grech on December 28, 1977.

The case took place at the height of a doctors' strike.

When asked how investigations were still going on 31 years after the case occurred, Mr Pullicino said all possibilities were being investigated and he could confirm that the police were still interested in questioning a number of persons.

The investigation, he said, was concentrated on a group of people who were final-year medical students at the time of the incident. These students had gone abroad to complete their course as a consequence of the doctors' strike while Prof. Grech and his family had just returned to Malta six months previously.

Former Police Inspector Charles Demicoli testified that he had been the investigating officer in 1977 and had continued to follow the case. The crime, he said, had been intensively investigated. The police had questioned a number of doctors and he also remembered searching the homes of a number of medical students.

The police had investigated people whose babies had died in hospital at the time. (Prof. Grech was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.)

When asked if he could recall whether Prof Grech was regarded as being a strike-breaker when he returned to Malta, Mr Demicoli said he did not.