The same frail looking man who was jailed for 30 years last year for his involvement in the murder of a Gozitan warden looked visibly worse yesterday when he testified, saying he held the woman while Ġanni Attard stabbed her.

Benny Attard, 51, was testifying in Mr Attard’s trial who is pleading not guilty to murdering Fortunata Spiteri, 47, on August 10, 2001 in Għarb.

Mr Attard had said in his own trial that Ġanni, a bus driver, had wanted to kill the warden for having given him too many parking tickets. He admitted to restraining her while the accused stabbed her and was sent to prison for 30 years for the crime.

He is serving time at Mount Carmel Hospital due to his poor health, which was evident yesterday as he needed help to walk into the court room and at times stood shaking in the dock. He also suffers from peripheral vascular disease as a direct result of diabetes and is blind in one eye.

Despite giving a very detailed account in his police statement of what had happened on the night of the murder and in the preceding days, Mr Attard yesterday gave a very watered down version of the evidence, which led the prosecutor to read out his previous police statement and ask him to confirm it.

In the statement, Mr Attard said he was picked up by Ġanni Attard, 64, and asked to go with him on a job in exchange for which he would receive €11,650. But he did not want to go alone, so he brought along his sister Maria and friend Giuseppe Farrugia.

Mr Farrugia was also charged with the murder, however, he died before proceedings came to an end. Ms Attard was not charged.

During cross-examination, de­fence lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace told the witness he was the mastermind behind the murder and not his client, a statement which Mr Attard categorically denied.

The victim’s husband, Joseph, also testified. He said that on the night of the murder, his wife had come home during her break and the two spoke. When it was time for her to leave she touched him on the shoulder, which he understood to mean goodbye. Just two hours later, at about 9.45 p.m., he received a call from hospital saying his wife had been involved in a car accident.

When he arrived at the emergency department the doctor told him “she’s gone” but he did not quite understand what he meant, at which point a priest emerged from behind the doctor and said that she had died.

They had been married for 26 years, he said, and he could not understand why anyone would want to hurt her, least of all the accused, with whom he had never had any arguments.

Asked if there had been any incidents involving his wife and the accused, Mr Spiteri recalled her mentioning an occasion when she had asked the accused to move his bus because he was occupying six parking spaces. He complied but she found it in the same spot soon afterwards and she asked him to move it again. He did so but she did not issue a fine over the incident, he said.

Aldo Cauchi, duty officer with the warden service on the night of the murder, said he was told about an accident and went to investigate. He found Ms Spiteri slumped over the steering wheel and struggling to breathe.

In reply to a question by the prosecution, he said she always did her job well.

The trial continues.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco from the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted.

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