The man thought to have sold the heroin Rachel Bowdler died from asked for bail yesterday but a decision will only be taken next week.

Brian Gatt, 32, is charged with the murder of the 18-year-old woman in May 2001 after she was found dead in a field from a heroin overdose.

Her case had gripped public opinion because it led to a whole family being sent to prison for failing to rescue her from the overdose.

Concetta Decelis, her husband Carmel and their son Jason were jailed for over 40 years between them for allowing Ms Bowdler to die when they dumped her in a field in the limits of Mgarr in May 2001.

However, after the judgment, Jason Decelis told the police that Mr Gatt had sold the girl a packet of heroin at his apartment in Bugibba on the day she died. The two took the drugs there and then left.

When Ms Bowdler started showing symptoms of an overdose, Mr Decelis, then 24, called the alleged dealer and was told not to take her to the hospital or to the polyclinic as they would be arrested, he claimed.

The parents eventually got involved but she was never taken to hospital out of fear of the repercussions. Their persistent omission lasted 12 hours in all - a time lapse in which, the prosecution had insisted, the girl could have been saved. She was found abandoned in a field after she died.

Mr Gatt has pleaded not guilty to her murder, trafficking in heroin and cocaine and relapsing.

His lawyers filed a request to grant him bail and pointed out that their client was never arrested on these charges. They also argued that Mr Decelis and his mother were not credible because they had changed their versions several times.