About 40 per cent of women murdered in Malta since the 1800s were killed by their husbands, according to crime historian Eddie Attard.

The most common motive was infidelity or a family dispute and the most popular method was stabbing, followed by shooting, Mr Attard said.

Research shows that stabbings are linked to emotional crimes and the more stab wounds the more likely that the crime was one driven by passion, said criminologist Saviour Formosa.

Asked whether the stabbing rate had increased, Dr Formosa - who is the creator of the Crime Malta website - explained that this was difficult to say with certainty.

"The numbers are too low to be statistically significant," he said adding that one must keep in mind that some stabbings went unreported, especially when they did not result in death.

Consulting his data base on murders in Malta since the 1800s, Mr Attard said the first trial of a man accused of uxoricide, or killing his wife, took place on January 18, 1831.

Patrick Moore, a British soldier stationed in Malta, was accused of killing his wife in Floriana but was acquitted.

The first conviction was that of Feliċ Ciangura of Rabat for killing his wife, Rosa, on January 21, 1837. She was thrown into a well in the vicinity of Mtaħleb, limits of Rabat.

"She was still alive when found by some farmers and, before dying, she testified that her husband had thrown her into the well. Her husband managed to flee from Malta and when he returned nine years later he was sentenced to life imprisonment," said Mr Attard, the author of a series of books about crime in Malta, Delitti F'Malta, which are now being translated into English.

More recent cases of uxoricide include that of Anthony Schembri who was accused of stabbing his wife, Doris, while she lay in a hospital bed in September 2005. He is awaiting trial.

On July 7, 2002, Ġilju Tanti hung himself after he stabbed and killed his wife Pauline in Rabat.

On December 5, 1999, Ronald Vella, a Gozitan, killed his wife Jane Mary by pushing her off a cliff at Ta' Ċenċ. He was jailed for 30 years in a landmark case that was the first conviction in which the victim's body was not found.

The murder of Catherine Agius in Tarxien last Monday was the third homicide of the year: Clive Farrugia, 24, stands charged with the murder of 61-year-old Mary Theresa Vella, the mother of his former girlfriend, on May 12 in Cospicua and, on April 2, the body of 20-year-old Gaetano Romano was discovered by his father Nicola in an industrial oven in a Buġibba garage. No one has yet been charged with that murder.

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