A man accused of killing his former partner had a history of harassing her and  twice forced his way into her car in the days before she was found dead, a court was told this morning.

Inspector Keith Arnaud was giving evidence in the compilation of evidence against Nizar el Gadi, who is accused of the murder of lawyer Margaret Mifsud. She was found dead in her car in Baħar ic-Cagħaq on Thursday April 19 after going to dinner with friends.

Inspector Arnaud described how Dr Mifsud was reported missing by her mother at 8.30 a.m. on April 19. Dr Mifsud had been out for a dinner with friends and dropped off one of her friends at 11.30 p.m.

Before leaving home Dr Mifsud had told her mother that she would switch off her mobile not to let her former partner bother her, but she gave her mother a friend's mobile phone number in case she needed to speak to her.

The accused used to live at their house until being ordered to leave following an incident on March 24 when he allegedly tried to strangle Dr Mifsud.

The inspector said the accused had intercepted Dr Mifsud on Monday and Tuesday of the week that she died.

On the Monday he entered her car when she called to pick up their children. An argument ensued over the children and he left.

On the following day he again entered her car when she called to pick up the children from ballet class. After pressure from the children, she agreed that they should all go out to a restaurant.

The inspector said that forensic evidence by the police established that the accused had lied to the police when he gave his statements.

In his statements, the accused claimed that they had a happy relationship and everything was normal, when this was not the case. E-mails sent by the victim to a friend in Canada showed a very different picture. She said she had been living with the accused but they were living separate lives and he was a violent man. She told her friend that she could not even imagine what he did to her and what she had to put up with. 

The inspector said  that mobile phone tracing showed that the accused followed the victim on the night that she died.

In his statement, the accused had claimed that on April 18 he had received a message from Dr Mifsud saying he could pick up two CVs which she was helping him update. He was to be at her home in Birkirkara before 8 p.m. He claimed to have turned up at 7.45 p.m. and called her on her mobile phone. He claimed she came out, got into his car and they drove some distance, talked kissed and had sex. However phone records showed all this to be untrue.

Phone records showed that at 7.45 p.m. his mobile phone was picked up near Portomaso, and not in Birkirkara.

The police established that on the fateful night the accused had rented a car. 

While the victim was at dinner in a restaurant in St Paul's Bay, he claimed to have been in Paceville. Yet his mobile phone trace showed him at a roundabout opposite Fortress restaurant where she was eating. The signal was then picked up again at 11.30 p.m. in the same road where the victim had dropped off her friend. This indicated that the accused had followed the victim. 

The rental car was noticed parked outside Empire Cinema, Bugibba at 1.30 a.m. on April 19.

The inspector said Dr Mifsud had no visible signs of violence on her body when she was found dead, and experts concluded that she died from compression of the chest. She had blood coming out of her nose and mouth. Although the body was found in a seated position, blood from her mouth had trickled to her eye, meaning she had been lying flat.

Her handbag and scarf were not in the car and they were never found.

A search in Dr Mifsud's house revealed a document handwritten by her detailing what had happened to her in the past, including the attempt to strangle her on March 24.  She wrote that the accused told her how to kill somebody without leaving a trace.

On April 19, when the body was found, the police called el Gadi and his reply was 'What now?'. In the space of an hour and 20 minutes the police called him 36 times and he only replied five times. He said he was worried about Dr Mifsud but did not ask questions about her. The police turned up at the lido where he claimed to work, but as the police turned up he ran away and threw away his shoes, because his boss did not want trouble.

After he was apprehended, the accused acted strangely at the police station and was taken to hospital, where he 'recovered' without treatment.

Searches by the police found that he had three mobile phones, and on the night of the victim's death he used only a Pink Samsung. Next day went back to using a Blackbury which he kept for everyday use.

Speaking about the way the accused harassed his former partner, Inspector Araud said that once, after a court hearing, Dr Mifsud got the fright of her life when she found him hidden in the luggage compartment of her car.

The case continues.