Pasqualino Cefai, charged with stabbing a man 14 times in a Gozo courtroom, wanted to solve his problem and get rid of the victim once and for all, jurors were told yesterday.

Mr Cefai is pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of Joseph Portelli, causing serious injury to his lawyer, Kevin Mompalao, causing slight injury to Michelangelo Bajada, a court usher, and being in illegal possession of a knife.

The police are alleging that he attacked Mr Portelli during a sitting in which the accused was contesting a warrant of seizure on a request by Mr Portelli who was seeking money he said he was owed.

He had asked for two trucks belonging to Mr Cefai to be given to him by way of payment. However, the accused argued that his livelihood depended on the vehicles and they could not be taken from him.

Lawyer Lara Lanfranco, from the Attorney General’s Office, for the prosecution, told jurors that Mr Cefai had gone to court resolute in solving his problem if the court did not do it for him. She insisted that the prosecution’s job was not to persecute and the charges were based on facts.

Earlier, defence lawyer Edward Gatt argued that his client should not be found guilty of attempted murder because there was no specific intention to commit murder.

This was evident in the fact that Mr Cefai stopped hitting the victim out of his own free will and not because he had been physically restrained by someone.

He asked the jurors to consider how someone could commit murder inside a courtroom in full view of a magistrate. This, he submitted, was a crime of passion and there was never intent to commit murder.

Dr Gatt contested the number of stab wounds allegedly sustained by the victim, arguing that only two were stab wounds and the rest were slashes.

He said that people with an agricultural backgrounds would usually carry knives with them to eat and that was why his client had one and not because he intended to kill Mr Portelli.

The trial continues this morning.