A witness in the case against Sandro Chetcuti, the former member of the GRTU who stands charged with seriously injuring its director general Vince Farrugia, yesterday admitted to lying under oath.

We must expose him as cheap, untrustworthy, a bum, money stinks guy

Sylvia Gauci, a former executive council member of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU), told the court: “I don’t want to lie any more,” before recanting her previous testimony and telling what she claimed to be the truth.

She had testified in another sitting that she had seen Mr Chetcuti beating Mr Farrugia after hearing shouts and screams coming from the director general’s office. But yesterday she admitted to having seen nothing of the sort.

She said that when she entered the office, Mr Farrugia was on the floor with blood coming out of his eyebrow, “where one would normally bleed a lot” and Mr Chetcuti was standing some distance away.

The alleged assault, for which Mr Chetcuti is pleading not guilty, took place on March 11, 2010, inside the GRTU building in Valletta. In another twist, Ms Gauci said that immediately following the fight, the staff gathered and decided what to tell the police in their statements.

They included GRTU vice president Phillip Fenech, official Joe Attard – who is also the chief executive of the subsidiary company Green MT – and GRTU president Paul Abela.

She said this worried her, before adding that she did not want to lie anymore.

Asked by Police Inspector James Grech if she had contacted the police to change her previous police statement, she said she had not.

Her version appeared to be backed up by an SMS sent to her by Mr Farrugia, who reminded her about what she was to say in her testimony before the court.

“And as he hit me you heard him say repeatedly ‘I will kill you’,” he told her.

It was one of the text messages read out by defence lawyer Emmanuel Mallia as the case got under way, revealing a number of others exchanged between GRTU officials Mr Farrugia, Mr Fenech and Mr Attard.

Dr Mallia used them to support his claim that Mr Chetcuti was provoked into acting the way he did by what his client had been exposed to as a member of the GRTU.

Dr Mallia said Mr Chetcuti had been subject to unfair, systematic behaviour to the extent that he was even block-voted out during the council elections.

In one exchange a day before the incident, Mr Farrugia calls Mr Chetcuti a leper and in another plans to “blacken his name” with “all the ministers, parliamentary secretaries, MPs and authorities” so that no one would trust or touch him.

In another SMS after the incident, Mr Farrugia pokes fun at the fact that Mr Chetcuti has been allowed into the prison yard while under preventative arrest “because he was going to go crazy in his cell” and mocks the fact that he owns a Ferrari.

Asked to explain his exchanging of SMSs with Mr Farrugia, Mr Fenech sheepishly admitted to replying to Mr Farrugia, saying he spoke his mind.

Asked to explain why there was an alleged block vote against Mr Chetcuti so that he would not be elected, Mr Fenech said it had been a very intense election and there were a lot of people who did not want him on the council.

A lot of comments were being made against him for leaking information about meetings, Mr Fenech said.

He said he could remember Mr Chetcuti taking the election very seriously and there were rumours that he wanted to get Mr Farrugia and others out.

At one point, Mr Fenech lifted his mobile phone and showed the court room photos he said were taken minutes after the beating.

Magistrate Edwina Grima told him to put his phone away because she knew what the injuries were. The case continues.

The text messages

Vince Farrugia and Philip Fenech in an exchange (unedited) on March 10, a day before the incident.

Mr Farrugia: We must blacken his name with all ministers and Parl Secs MP’s and authorities so nobody trusts him and nobody touches him. HE’S A LEPER. We must hit him from all angles, no mercy.

Mr Fenech: Just tell him to go or else!! Paul will.. we have all endorsement.. By all that matter in the council.

Mr Farrugia: But first we must besmearch him. We must not make a hero for labour out of him. We must expose him as cheap, a traitor, untrustworthy, a bum, money stinks guy. Then we dump him as cant wrapper.

Mr Fenech: Yes fully agree.. Will do.. Tomorrow I will tell you what I did so far. I will see you after court case I have.

Mr Farrugia: Just phone everyone you know that we caught him red handed spying for Joseph. Kill. He’ll die when he’s shunned.

Mr Fenech: Yes will do.. That is the way.

Mr Fenech : Excellent well done. I spoke to Paul re Sandro tomorrow we shall talk.. He is dangerous, cannot trust him.. he has exceeded all limits ! Philip.

An SMS that Mr Farrugia sent to Sylvia Gauci on March 19, eight days after the alleged incident:

Mr Farrugia: Re wed remember when you came in you saw him looking vicious and almost ready to butt my head with his. Your eye message which I read was “watch it” and your eyes showed terror. That’s what I’ll say. And as he hit me you heard him say repeatedly “noqtlok, noqtlok”. That’s the truth. I wake up in the night hearing those words in his hoarse voice laud in my ears. We must all hammer this point.”

An SMS exchange between Mr Farrugia and Joe Attard (translated from the Maltese):

Mr Farrugia: They took him out for exercise in the (prison) yard because he said that he was going to go mad in the cell ferrari lomborghini!

Mr Attard: He had better get used to the environment because he will be part of the furniture.