Former policeman Carmel Cutajar harboured symptoms of "excessive jealousy" towards his estranged wife but was of sound mind when he shot her in the chest, psychiatrists concluded.
Psychiatrist Jean-Pierre Giorgio took the witness stand this morning in the trial by jury of the 50-year-old from Rabat, who is pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of his former wife Maria, seriously injuring her, carrying an unlicensed firearm and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent. The incident occurred in Saqqajja, Rabat, on September 26, 2012.
Following the incident, the accused was admitted into Mount Carmel Hospital where he spent three weeks before being declared fit to be interrogated by the police.
Dr Giorgio told the court that the accused was agitated and harboured symptoms of excessive jealousy towards his wife. However, he did not display any symptoms of psychosis such as schizophrenia. During his stay at the hospital, there were no concerns about his behaviour, which seemed normal. The accused was not hearing voices or suffering paranoia, Dr Giorgio qualified. He was eventually discharged into police custody.
Asked about the accused's specific condition, Dr Giorgio said that he was admitted after seeming very agitated whilst under arrest. Upon examination, he could observe signs of obsessiveness in his character, coupled with traits of perfectionism, pathological (abnormal) jealousy and a fixation that his wife was two timing him.
Under cross-examination, Dr Giorgio said the accused seemed downcast due to the incident but did not have a major depressive disorder. He had also said that he loved his wife very much and that he was "very jealous".
Next to take the witness stands were psychiatrists Joseph Cassar, Etienne Muscat and David Mamo, who were tasked with determining his state of mind when he committed the alleged crime.
Speaking in the name of all three, Dr Cassar said they had concluded that, at the time of the crime, he was of sound mind and not suffering from psychosis, which meant being cut off from reality.
Following an assessment from psychologist Bernard Caruana, the psychiatrists concluded that he had an obsessive compulsive personality disorder.
This meant that such a character was rigid in his thought process, wanted things to be exact, and found it difficult to remove something from his mind once he had fixated on it. However, he knew what he was doing when he was carrying out the crime and was not following any voices in his head, which would be symptomatic of psychosis.
Madam Justice Edwina Grima is presiding over the trial. Giannella Busuttil and Anthony Vella from the Attorney General's office are prosecuting. Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo are defending the accused.