Updated: Court told of murder victim's last hours

A court was told today of the last hours of a 20-year-old woman whose body, bound at the hands and feet, was found in the sea off Delimara in October 1999.

Joseph Azzopardi, of Tarxien, is pleading not guilty to the murder of the woman, Therese Agius. He also denies trafficking in heroin on the night between October 1 and 2, 1999,

Lawyer Aaron Bugeja, from the Attorney General’s office, outlined his case to jurors this morning.

He said that on October 2, a Saturday, Therese Agius, did not return home. Her worried parents filed a police report. Investigations showed that this young woman frequented the Gzira prostitution area and had a drug addiction. Her family found this reality difficult to accept.

The police questioned several people, including the accused, who initially said he had seen Ms Agius the previous Thursday. He later said he had seen her on the Friday when he took her to Gzira. He made a statement on October 8 and another the following day.

At the time police were investigating a missing person.

But the investigations took a different turn on October 12 when her badly decomposed body was found about 11.5 miles off Delimara by a man on a boat. The body was tied up at the arms and legs and the rope was twisted around her neck.

The police then started investigating Ms Agius’ murder, Dr Bugeja said as he held up a photo of Ms Agius.

“I’m showing you her photo because you are not going to see her... All you will see is the face of a skeleton,” he said.

Dr Bugeja said that evidence would show that Ms Agius rented an apartment in Gzira from a certain Charles Debono known as Maradona. She had not been going to Griza for about three weeks as she was attending a course.

On October 1, Ms Agius wanted to take drugs and bought three packets of Lm10 each from Lawrence Attard known as Wenzu L-Ghawdxi. She bought the drugs for her and for the accused.

A friend of theirs, Pawlu Micallef, known as il- body builder, lived in Cospicua with a certain Natal Bonello. That day Mr Micallef, who has since died and had had a relationship with Ms Agius and asked her for drugs. She told him where to get drugs and he went to buy from Wenzu.

They agreed to meet at Ms Agius’ apartment to take drugs together.

Dr Bugeja said that evidence would show that Ms Agius did not inject herself but was dependent on the accused to take drugs as he managed to find her vein. She only trusted him to inject her.

The accused did not inject himself but sniffed the heroin after burning it on a piece of foil.

Dr Bugeja said that, through his evidence Mr Micallef had said that on that day, Ms Agius had taken pills to amplify the affect of drugs. She insisted on taking the heroin even though Mr Micallef noticed that she was already high.

After injecting Ms Agius, the accused was about to sniff his drugs. Then foam started forming in Ms Agius’ month, she turned blue, stepped backwards, fell to the ground and suffered a fit.

Mr Micallef had told police that Mr Azzopardi said this was not the first time this happened to her and she would recover. Mr Micallef noticed she was barely breathing and said they should call the ambulance.

Mr Azzopardi preferred not to call for help as he feared he would end up in court. He told Mr Debono, the landlord, who told them to remove Ms Agius from this apartment.

Mr Micallef said he saw the accused carry Ms Agius’ body wrapped in a sheet and put her into his van. He thought Mr Azzopardi was going to take her somewhere and call for help. Later that night Mr Azzopardi turned up at his door stop at about 5 a.m., all sweaty, and asked for a sleeping pill.

Police inspector Ramon Cassar, who was a scene of crime officer, showed jurors a series of photographs of Ms Agius’ body.

The images showed the way in which her body had been tied before being thrown into the sea. Three stands of rope were tied around her ankles and then went over the waist and round to her back where her wrists were tied and continued being wrapped around her neck.

Inspector Cassar pointed out that this type of tie, known as hog tie, meant that if a victim moved their arms or legs the rope tightened around their neck.This tie also made it easy for a body to be carried.

Earlier lawyer Aaron Bugeja, prosecuting, said the autopsy would reveal that the cause of death was an overdose.

Superintendent Sharon Tanti, who investigated the missing person report, said that prostitutes she questioned had said that, no matter what, Ms Agius always called her mother every day. It was strange that she had not contacted her. Ms Agius’ father, she said, had always helped in police investigations and asked around to try find his daughter.

The trial continues.