Updated 12.45 p.m.

A man who had told a magisterial inquiry that he had been asked to kill a woman in 2005 today changed his version before a court, and said his original evidence was given following pressure by the police.

Matthew Pace was testifying in the trial of Ronnie Azzopardi, who is pleading not guilty to murdering Angela Bondin in a bomb explosion in Zejtun on June 18, 2005. According to the prosecution, the bomb had been intended for Azzopardi’s sister-in-law, but the  bag containing the explosive was unwittingly moved by a passer-by, Tessie Grima.  Bondin died and Grima was injured when the bomb went off as they chatted in the street.

Taking the witness stand, Matthew Pace, said he knew the accused as a neighbour in Cospicua. He said the police had questioned him over whether the accused asked him to place the Zejtun bomb.

A police inspector had told him to say that the accused had asked him to plant the bomb, warning him that he would not be released  until he did so. He then began agreeing to whatever the police said.   

Asked whether he had spoken to social worker Malcolm Micallef (whom he allegedly told that he was asked to murder the woman) he said 'yes' but could not remember details.

In his testimony during the magisterial inquiry Pace had said that he was approached by the accused and asked to kill a woman who was bothering him. The plan was for him to meet her in Gzira have sex with her and then strangle her or shoot her the second time they met. He was to  have been paid  Lm500.

But Mr Pace said in evidence today that (then) Police Inspector Carmelo Bartolo forced him to say that, and he invented the story and it was  all a lie

Earlier in today's sitting. the intended victim of a bomb attack spoke of how she had been warned that the accused was seeking to buy a bomb.

She also said that it was only her decision to change her usual plans and opt to go shopping which saved her life and that of four of her children.

The woman, who cannot be named by court order, told a court that she normally visited her mother every Saturday, parking her car in the same spot Santa Maria street in Zejtun at 10 a.m. The spot was where the bomb was originally placed.

On the day when she visited her mother, she decided to go shopping in Zejtun with her eldest daughter and did not use the car.

Her mother was on the roof of her own home, hanging some clothes, when the bomb went off.

The witness said that some three weeks before the blast she had met the accused – her brother in-law  - together with their lawyers to discuss a Mercedes Benz which belonged to her late husband and over which inheritance there was disagreement.

No deal was reached. She said the other heirs wanted to give it to him for free but she  wanted her share because of her children.

She said that she was later contacted by people who told her to be careful because the accused was looking to buy a bomb.

Some hours after the bomb blast, she returned to her car, which was not damaged. She was approached by  Police Inspector Carmelo Bartolo and she told him she was afraid   to start the car. She had, in fact, not taken her children with her as a precaution.

The inspector asked her why she was afraid to start the car and she told him about the problems she  had with the accused. The inspector had the car checked.

The witness said the accused used to threaten her. She had become fed up of filing police reports about the accused following her.

She said she would see him going around the block of flats where she lived. He even moved into a flat opposite her at one point and he would demand that she pay his utility bills.

Once he drove right alongside and told her he was ready for a fight.

He would threaten to kill her and her children.

The case continues.