An immigration detention centre officer told a court yesterday a colleague informed him that an immigrant had died of “fright”.

Bombardier Robert Brincat, who was stationed at Safi Barracks, recalled receiving a phone call from Lance Bombardier Gordon Pickard, 35, from Żabbar, on June 30 last year.

Lance Bombardier Pickard, together with Gunner Clive Cuschieri, 29, of Paola, and Sergeant Mark Anthony Dimech, 44, of Gżira, went looking for Malian Mamadou Kamara who had escaped from custody.

Lance Bombardier Pickard stands charged with tampering with evidence and the other two are charged with murdering Mr Kamara.

Bombardier Brincat said that when Lance Bombardier Pickard called to tell him that Mr Kamara, 32, had died, he asked how and the reply was: “I don’t know, possibly because he got a fright.”

Pathologists Marie Therese Camilleri Podestà and Ali Safraz, who carried out the autopsy on the victim, said he had died from vasovagal inhibition due to severe pain resulting from blunt trauma.

In a previous sitting, the court heard the blunt trauma was caused when Mr Kamara was kicked in the testicles by Gnr Cuschieri as he and Sgt. Dimech tried to arrest the immigrant.

The case continues.