One of the revelations which came from the latest testimony of Gayle Kimberley was her claim that she only ever received threats from her former lover Iosif Galea.

Asked by Police Inspector Angelo Gafà if she had ever received threats over this case, she said these only came from Mr Galea and were related to their relationship ending. She claimed he threatened to sever the brakes of her car and smash her face in.

She was testifying in the case of Silvio Zammit.

The detail is important because last December, the prosecution had said that Dr Kimberley had told police she had been blackmailed over what to say in court.

The prosecution even moved the issue to argue against Mr Zammit being given bail. In fact, he was denied bail at the time, although it was eventually granted later against a deposit of €25,000 and a personal guarantee of €75,000, after Dr Kimberley testified for the first time.

Back in December Dr Kimberley would not give further information but police had understood that the blackmail centred around her affair with Mr Galea.

Yet when asked about this on April 19, Dr Kimberley said she only ever received threats from Mr Galea and they had no connection with the snus investigation.

Questions were sent to the police earlier this week querying the apparent contradictions but no replies were forthcoming at the time of writing.

The defence team of Mr Zammit has been openly targeting the credibility of Dr Kimberley, who is a key witness of the police.

Defence lawyer Edward Gatt pointed out in previous hearings that the OLAF report had recommended that charges be issued against Dr Kimberley over her involvement and that she had lied to EU investigators during her interrogation.