Godfrey Scicluna. Photo: Ian Pace

The elderly widow of a 91-year-old man hit by a car driven by the former Security Service head yesterday broke down in tears while describing how she had anxiously searched for him before finding out what had happened.

Taking the witness stand, Julia Lughermo, from Paola, said that on June 2 last year, her late husband Raphael left the house to pray at a chapel not far from their home.

The former head of the Security Service, Godfrey Scicluna, is charged with involuntarily causing injuries to Mr Lughermo when he reversed his car into him at about 1pm in St Monica Street, Paola.

Mr Lughermo suffered fractures and bruises and was released from hospital after some 15 days.

He died of natural causes nine months later.

On June 2, the elderly man waited for their daughter to return home before setting off on the short walk to the chapel, his widow said.

She waited for him to come back and then took a decision to look for him at the chapel.

His prayer group friends told her he had never shown up.

Near the chapel she spotted a black car and a police car as well as two or three people sitting on the pavement near a tall policeman.

She instantly knew that her husband had been hurt.

Breaking down, she recalled how a woman at the scene asked her what she was looking for and told her a man had been run over.

She went to hospital but only got to speak to him five days later when he was able to communicate. Ms Lughermo added that she met the defendant at the hospital, who told her he had not been injured.

Ms Lughermo’s son-in-law, Eugenio Cassar, told the court under cross examination Mr Lughermo did not suffer from dizzy spells.