Nicholas Grech, 37-year-old, from Mosta was accused in court this evening of animal cruelty which caused the series of macabre cat killings in Mosta over the past two-and-a-half years.

He covered his face as he was driven into the law courts building in a police car. A woman shouted insults at him.

Unshaven and wearing a dark coloured suit and flip flops, Grech rocked back and forth as he sat in the dock. He was also accused of desecrating religious sites.

The Magistrate read out details of the 11 cases when dead animals were found crucified. The police presented 15 keys which the accused allegedly used to access churches and crypts. Mr Grech made the keys himself.

The police also presented two judgements in court cases where Mr Grech was accused of harassment and vandalism, where he was not found guilty because of mental illness.

Mr Grech pleaded not guilty.

Legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech asked for the accused to be examined by a psychiatrist. The court agreed and Mr Grech was remanded at Mt Carmel Hospital.

Earlier this afternoon, senior police officers said that the motive behind the cat killings appeared to be media attention to raise morale. The suspect had suffered mental problems.

Fourteen animals, mostly cats but also a number of dogs, were found dead and crucified in various parts of Mosta between September 2011 and last month.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Zammit said Mr Grech had been a suspect for some 14 months and a lot of patience was needed by the police, who had also been monitoring a number of other people.

He said Mr Grech was arrested yesterday at 7am on the basis of surveillance and information from the public. He lived with his parents in Mosta in circumstances described as 'strange'.

The police searched his residence yesterday and found material related to animal cruelty on his computer.

There were two live cats in the house.

Mr Grech released a statement about his involvement. The deputy commissioner said the police still had to see if there was an element of killing of animals.

The cats that were killed and crucified are believed to have been strays. Some had broken bones.

The officers said Mr Grech  knew Frangisku Buhagiar, an elderly man convicted of murder years ago. 

The deputy commissioner said that the police are not ruling out that other people were involved.

He said that notes found with the animal carcases were related to the suspect.

Ever since the cases started, four notes were found with the animal carcasses.

Times of Malta reported on February 8 how the author of all four notes drew on circumstances that would bring to mind the case of Franġisku Buhagiar, 83, who had shot dead his sister, Maria, on February 16, 1999, following an argument over burnt toast and a jersey that needed mending. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The house where the first puppy was found, back in 2011, was the place where the murder had occurred.

The police had interrogated Mr Buhagiar over the spate of animal killings and he insisted he was being set up.

The rather lengthy notes are written in a Maltese dialect, with sources confirming that the calligraphy of all four were extremely similar to each other.

The most recent note spoke of the 48 years that have passed since the perpetrator was still a young man, hoping to find a woman who would love and care for him and who would give him children who would look after him.

Instead, the note continued, everything turned out the other way round, with the perpetrator being left tormented (imsallab) by a demon of a woman, neglected by God and tortured with the venom of people’s tongues.

This woman dragged him through hell, the perpetrator lamented, causing him continuous pain.

Whenever he asked her to do something for him, she would purposely do things badly and carelessly to spite him. Her careless work, the note rambled on, meant that his clothes would rip apart when the author was in front of people, providing them an opportunity to make fun of him.

The woman was disgusted by him and even treated him worse than she would an animal, the author wrote.

The self-pitying tone is prevalent in all four notes but the 2011 one reeks of anger and revenge.

It curses Maria, the woman whom the author claimed he loved, yet, who insulted him and abandoned him. 

The 2011 note mentions columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, saying she spewed venom about him in the papers.

He cursed all those who enjoyed his predicament and those who, through their words or actions, made him suffer.

In one of the 2012 notes, the author prayed to St Joseph that the person he engaged to hang the crucified animals would spend the money he paid him on drugs and alcohol.

He hoped that the cross placed upside down would curse his accomplice so that he would not return for the rest of the money the author had promised him in return for hanging the crucified animals.

The author wanted the people to express compassion towards him, hoping that this would lead him to finding a woman who would care for him and pamper him.

He dreamt about getting along with the sister of the sacristan. He would bequeath his wealth to her rather than to his cursed relatives.

If St Joseph granted his wishes, he would restore the saint’s statue rather than that of his namesake, St Francis.

Mr Buhagiar had helped restore the statue of St Philip.

In the second note written in 2012, the author lamented that God still abandoned him to his current misery. If God didn’t pity animals, how could He be expected to pity the author, the note adds.

People were quick to make a big a fuss over an animal, the author writes, but no one felt anything for him. His conclusion therefore was that he was worse than a beast because no one pitied or understood him.