Roger Agius, the man who stands accused with the murder of his estranged wife Catherine in Tarxien on July 13 had told her sister that if he did not get half of everything he would stab and kill his wife.

Testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Agius, Catherine’s sister Miriam Milankovic told the Courts that she had known Mr Agius for more than 15 years when he and her sister were still dating.

She said that while her sister had always worked, Mr Agius hardly ever did. She recalled that after just a month of marriage Mr Agius drove his wife to Ms Milankovic to ask for money.

Once she gave her Lm150, another time Lm200.

“I never asked for the money back, I just could not cope with seeing the children suffer, Ms Milankovic said.

She recalled that shortly before her death, her sister had gone crying to her saying she could not live on the €55 a week that she was earning from a laundry job she got after being made redundant from VF.

One day she told her that she was going to take a stand and Mrs Milankovic told her that it was about time since Mr Agius was always drunk.

“I could see that during their arguments he used to hit her... I could see bruises on her thighs, arms and face... She told me I love him and I pray for him, I really pray for him to change. I even get the children to pray for him but I just cannot live on €55. I will start separation proceedings as I want me and my children to live decently.”

Mr Agius, Ms Milankovic said, had gambling and alcohol problems. He would spend his wife’s wages on his vices and they even had debts with a third person.

Her sister would cash her cheque and take the money home and this was how he would get his hands on it.

“I kept giving her money to help out,” Ms Milankovic said.

She said that during the separation proceedings, Mr Agius literally grabbed his wife and threw her out of the house. The children lived with their mother at their grandparent’s house all in one bedroom. He did not even offer to pay some sort of maintenance.

Once, Ms Milankovic recalled, her sister went to get her clothes and Mr Agius came to her at the door, shoved bills and a shopping list for food at her face and told her to go shopping because the fridge and cupboards were empty.

At their lawyers’ the couple came to an agreement that instead of him having to pay maintenance, she would keep the house.

But later he called Ms Milankovic on her mobile phone and told her he should have given her sister a good beating.

“Later he said tell your sister that I want half of everything and if I don’t get it I will stab her and kill her. This was in May. I do not know if she made a police report, I did not make a report because I did not want to make things worse,” Ms Milankovic said.

She said that after she recounted the incident to her sister, Mrs Agius was so afraid of walking down the street that she would always be looking over her shoulder.

On the day of the murder she saw some bags in the middle of the street as soon as she got off the bus.

“A policeman told me to go back home. But our neighbours said that a woman had been injured and I went back to the policemen and asked them if it was my sister Catherine Agius. They said yes.”

Crying, she told the Court that shortly afterwards she heard her sister had died.

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Mr Agius, 47, of Fgura is pleading not guilty to the murder, being in possession of a knife and relapsing.

He allegedly stabbed 40-year-old mother of three Catherine Agius once below her breasts, causing her to drop her handbag and shopping while bleeding profusely.

The stabbing occurred at 5.55 p.m. just as she stepped off the bus on her way home in Neolithic Temple Street. Mr Agius turned himself in at the Paola police station shortly afterwards.