Drama teacher Erin Tanti told the rescuer who airlifted him to safety he had fallen off a cliff in Dingli and pointed to the area from where he fell, the court heard yesterday as it continued hearing the case about the death of his 15-year-old student.

Lance Bombardier Pierre Cassar – the first person who spoke to the 23-year-old during the rescue mission on March 19 – insisted that Mr Tanti told him he “fell” and hadn’t “jumped” off the cliff.

I doubted whether he fell such a distance because he was speaking to me and was conscious and could move his legs

So far various police witnesses who testified have said that Mr Tanti claimed that he jumped off the cliff after Lisa Maria Zahra.

Mr Cassar said that Mr Tanti’s words were documented on a video recording of the rescue filmed by his helmet-mounted camera. He expected Mr Tanti to have sustained worse injuries after such a drop.

“I doubted whether he fell such a distance because he was speaking to me and was conscious and could move his legs. But I did not take chances and treated the case as a suspected spinal injury,” he said.

Mr Cassar was testifying, before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, in the compilation of evidence against Mr Tanti, who is pleading not guilty to the murder of Ms Zahra, and assisting her to commit suicide at Dingli Cliffs on March 19. He is also charged with defiling her, participating in sexual acts and being in possession of indecent images of her.

Yesterday’s court sitting – the fourth in the case against Mr Tanti – was characterised by the testimony of members of the Armed Forces of Malta and the Civil Protection Department who recounted their involvement in airlifting Mr Tanti and the body of Ms Zahra from the bottom of the cliffs.

Mr Cassar said that on arriving in Dingli, at about 4pm, he winched himself down from a helicopter to assist Mr Tanti.

At the time he was wearing a helmet on which there was a video camera that recorded the rescue. The recording will be exhibited in court.

He said Mr Tanti “looked confused” even though he replied to his questions. He pointed up to an area at the top of the cliffs – about eight storeys above them – and said he fell from that distance.

Mr Cassar said that, on examination, Mr Tanti had a wound to his leg and another on his forehead and said he had a pain in his side.

When he asked Mr Tanti if he was alone, Mr Tanti told him he was with his girlfriend and she was “up there”. But her body was later found about 50 metres away from Mr Tanti. The two had fallen around about the same distance, he said.

Mr Cassar said he was involved in Ms Zahra’s rescue but, when he arrived, she was dead and the state of her body suggested that hours had passed since she died. She had sustained several wounds.

Magistrate rules that case can continue

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Demicoli ruled there was sufficient evidence for Mr Tanti to be indicted.

This means that the magistrate found that, according to the evidence she heard so far, there was sufficient evidence for the case against Mr Tanti to continue.

The case continues on June 3.

Lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha are representing Mr Tanti, while lawyers Giannella de Marco and Joseph Giglio are representing the Zahra family.

Police Inspectors Keith Arnaud, Sylvana Briffa and Josric Mifsud are prosecuting.