The wife of the late Nicholas Azzopardi has broken her four-year silence to deny “false declarations” that she had an affair with a disgraced former police sergeant who was with her husband while he was in custody.

Just because they want to clear Nicholas Azzopardi’s name, they have no right to tarnish my daughter’s reputation

“I’m very hurt by these allegations. I never saw PS Adrian Lia nor do I know him,” Claudette Azzopardi told The Sunday Times.

The 37-year-old mother has decided to take legal action against her husband’s father Joseph and brother Reno and “certain media companies” for spreading these accusations.

Through her lawyer Cedric Mifsud, she is warning them not to continue spreading these claims or they will be faced with further legal action.

Her mother Antonia Patiniott added: “Just because they want to clear Nicholas Azzopardi’s name, they have no right to tarnish my daughter’s reputation and fire allegations irresponsibly.”

Ms Azzopardi came forward to deny his family’s allegations that while Nicholas was being questioned, PS Lia taunted him mid-interrogation, allegedly telling him he had repeatedly slept with his wife.

The case has always courted controversy. On his deathbed Mr Azzopardi, 38, alleged that while in custody – he was being interrogated for allegations he was sexually abusing his seven-year-old daughter – police officers had beaten him up before flinging him off a bastion.

The police repeatedly denied such claims and said Mr Azzopardi jumped off the bastion at the Floriana headquarters himself.

Two inquiries into the matter found in the police’s favour.

The magisterial inquiry showed PS Lia’s involvement with Mr Azzopardi while in custody between April 8 and 9, 2008, was minimal and the main interrogating officer was Vice Squad Inspector Graziella Muscat.

PS Lia’s name only seems to surface as one of two officers accompanying Mr Azzopardi before the incident. And just before Mr Azzopardi suffered fatal injury, PS Lia had momentarily left his side to inform his superiors that the man’s wife was in the waiting room.

The inquiry has since been re-opened at the Police Commissioner’s request after Mr Lia, who resigned, was accused of theft amounting to more than €30,000.

Ms Azzopardi is indifferent to the decision to reopen the inquiry, even though it has led to her family’s barely healed wounds to re-open.

“We never doubted the conclusions of the two inquiries... All I’m interested in is that the truth gets out – we’ve got nothing to hide,” she said.

Asked why she had never spoken out before, Ms Azzopardi said she felt it had not been in her children’s interests – the couple had a girl and a boy, today aged 11 and seven. However, the rumours being spread about her now left her no choice but to defend her name.

She married Nicholas at the age of 25, but their relationship was always turbulent.

As the years passed, the marital problems increased. Both sides filed police reports against each other but continued living together.

Their son suffers from autism and Ms Azzopardi claimed Nicholas never seemed interested in him.

The preferred child was his daughter and he took her out on weekends and holidays, showering her with attention, while their son remained with his mother.

At one point, in February 2008, Mr Azzopardi filed an application before the Family Court, alleging his wife was psychologically unstable, had an alcohol problem (blood tests disprove this), and was not fulfilling her duties as a mother.

Coming to her daughter’s defence, Ms Patiniott said: “If it was up to Nicholas he would have had my daughter locked up in a mental hospital... He wanted the girl at all costs, for what reason I don’t know.”

The Family Court’s lawyer had looked into these allegations, recognised the couple had “serious matrimonial issues” and concluded the girl should spend more time with her paternal grandparents.

Despite this recommendation, the girl only spent weekends there and couple continued living under the same roof until the day he died.

Dr Mifsud said at no point did the lawyer’s report recommend that Ms Azzopardi be stripped of the girl’s care or custody, rebutting statements that Nicholas or his parents ever had custody.

“Joseph Azzopardi’s statement that Claudette filed a police report after she lost care and custody of her daughter is utterly false,” Dr Mifsud said.

It was also untrue that Ms Azzopardi had filed a police report claiming her husband was abusing their daughter simply to pay him back after she “supposedly” lost custody.

“We’re not behind any vendetta,” Ms Azzopardi stressed, keen to dispel perceptions she tried to pay him back for the girl’s custody.

The girl had become the focus of the couple’s discord and Ms Azzopardi said that to date she remained badly affected by what happened and her performance in school was suffering.

Ms Azzopardi said it was district police themselves who first suspected the girl may have been abused and informed the appropriate government agency, Appoġġ.

Appoġġ followed up, questioning the girl and Ms Azzopardi for three months. It then forwarded its conclusions to the Vice Squad.

On April 8, once they concluded there was a possibility abuse had taken place, Vice Squad Inspector Graziella Muscat and Appoġġ social worker Melissa Xuereb turned up unannounced outside the couple’s home in Fgura. They took the girl, accompanied by her father, for questioning at the police headquarters.

Ms Azzopardi’s life took another horrible turn and she recalls the moment police informed her Nicholas had jumped: “I had a panic attack and was rushed to hospital... I was shaking and had heart palpitations.”

What did she think was the motivation for her husband’s tragedy?

“It’s hard to say. In our marriage he was violent... Nicholas did some things he should never have done,” she said, adding her husband had shown signs of fear when he realised the investigations of child abuse were taking place.

“If he had remained alive and we had a proper relationship things would have been much better for me... The dust had started to settle but these allegations have revived the hurt.

“I’m broken and shattered. I never deserved this.

“All I’m interested in is that this whole thing ends and the truth is out – it makes no difference whether the inquiry is reopened or not.”