Caroline Magri was slashed across the neck and murdered by her former partner in the course of a heated argument, a court heard today as the compilation of evidence for the murder case got underway.
Djibril Ganiou, 33 and from Togo, has been charged with Ms Magri’s murder, after police found her lifeless body on a bed in a Ta’ Giorni apartment on September 30.
A police prosecutor told the court today that Mr Ganiou had admitted to the murder during a police interrogation, and that forensic tests had revealed traces of the victim's blood on clothes found at his apartment.
Police had been called to the apartment on Theodore Siculus Street by Moses Bafoe, the victim's partner, prosecuting inspector Keith Arnaud told the court presided over by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit.
Ms Magri was found lying on the bed, in her underwear and a black top, with her lower body covered with a sheet. A mobile phone lying beside her was still switched on. The victim had a deep wound on her neck, and blood was splattered all over the bed and furniture. Bloody footprints trailed across the room and led to the ensuite bathroom.
CCTV footage from outside the apartment revealed that on the day of the alleged murder, Mr Ganiou had entered Ms Magri’s apartment at around 7.30am using a back door which led into the bedroom.
He was wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and was sporting a hair design which made him easily identifiable, prosecutors said.
After the victim arrived in her BMW, the accused was seen leaving the apartment, approaching the victim's car, opening the luggage booth and then making his way back inside. It was only around 11.40am that he reappeared, wearing a bright yellow t-shirt which was later found by the investigators in his apartment on Blanche Huber Street, Sliema.
Forensic tests carried out on jeans and shoes found at the accused’s house revealed blood stains that matched Ms Magri’s blood.
The prosecutor told the court that Mr Ganiou had told police that on the morning of the alleged crime he had arrived at the Ta' Giorni apartment after Ms Magri had phoned him and threatened to commit suicide unless he made up with her.
Finding the apartment empty, he waited for the victim. Upon her return, an argument ensued wherein he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the victim. Mr Ganiou said he could not recall anything that came afterwards.
He even contemplated suicide and in fact, two fresh wounds found on his neck by the court medical expert were deemed to be self-inflicted wounds.
Various relatives and friends of the victim informed the police that she had on several occasions spoken to them about her troubled relationship with the accused. One of her daughters described suddenly finding the accused in her mother’s apartment on one occasion.
All throughout the sitting the accused, wearing a black jacket and dark jeans, sat in the dock with his head bent down, arms crossed resting on his knees, mumbling under his breath as the interpreter translated the proceedings into French. The case continues.