An “indispensable” witness in a murder trial yesterday said he lied to a magistrate and to the police when he alleged the accused had asked him to finish off the killing following a failed bomb assassination.

Matthew Pace originally said he was asked by Ronnie Azzopardi to sleep with the intended victim, a Ġzira prostitute and Mr Azzopardi’s former sister-in-law, and then in a second visit to either strangle or shoot her for €1,116.

Yesterday he said he had lied about this. This is the second time he has done this, after saying he had not told the truth during the compilation of evidence.

Mr Azzopardi stands charged with murdering Angela Bondin in Żejtun on June 18, 2005.

She happened to be passing by when a bomb went off allegedly intended for Mr Azzopardi’s former sister-in-law and her three children.

The bomb also seriously injured a friend of the deceased woman, Tessie Grima.

Mr Pace alleged that he was forced to come up with the story by two police officers, Inspector Chris Pullicino and Superintendent Carmelo Bartolo, and threatened he would not be allowed out unless he agreed.

The officers categorically denied ever putting pressure on him and pointed out that the police had only known of Mr Pace because his counsellor had reported he had been approached to kill someone.

The officers said that they had no reason to put him under pressure because he was an indispensable witness.

Under a barrage of questions from Mr Justice Michael Mallia, Mr Pace insisted he had lied and never spoke to his counsellor about anything of the sort.

During cross examination, he said he did not know the accused personally; he was a neighbour but their relationship was based on greeting one other and that was it.

Taking the witness stand, the woman for whom the bomb was allegedly intended asked the court to ban the publication of her name to protect the identity of her six children, three of them still minors. The request was granted.

She said the day the bomb went off was a normal Saturday during which she would visit her mother.

She would always park in the same spot – where the bomb was placed – and was at her mother’s house around the corner when she heard the explosion.

“My heart went tick,” she said – the sound reminded her that someone had told her the accused was looking to buy a bomb to kill her.

They had had a long standing argument over the inheritance of her late husband and the accused, his brother, wanted a Mercedes-Benz from her.

She said she had reported him to the police countless times for threatening her and they did nothing. “If the police had acted then this would have not have happened,” she said.

“Why does somebody have to die for them to take action?”

She said she was so scared that she would record every number plate of the cars that she saw him driving.