The President’s chief of staff, John Camilleri, coordinated meetings at San Anton Palace for Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation witnesses ahead of hearings on the 2015 car show incident, court documents show.

Gordon Pace and Lisa Brooke testified before Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff that at the meetings, Mr Camilleri and the foundation’s lawyers underlined the foundation had not organised the Paqpaqli għall-Istrina event directly – it was a “third-party event”.

Transcripts of the court evidence show that, especially during Dr Brooke’s evidence, the judge intervened various times, reminding the witnesses they were under oath and therefore bound to tell the whole truth.

In one instance, Mr Justice Mintoff even warned Dr Brooke, who represents the foundation in Gozo, that he did not believe anything she was saying.

“Please, Dr Brooke, have patience and [note], though I do not give that impression, my patience has its limitations too. You are testing my patience. Right? And seriously, because I am not believing a single word you are saying,” the judge told her.

Later, he warned her to bear in mind her warrant.

“You are risking a lot,” Mr Justice Mintoff told Dr Brooke.

Six civil law suits have been instituted by the victims of the 2015 incident, during which 23 people were injured, some of them seriously. The lawsuits are against President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, members of her staff and members of the car show organising committee, most of them volunteers.

The President and the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation insist the car show was held by third parties and thus, they could not be held responsible for the incident or any damages.

In their evidence, both Mr Pace and Dr Brooke kept insisting that Paqpaqli għall-Istrina was a third-party event. Eventually, they said they had participated in meetings at San Anton Palace during which the upcoming court procedures were discussed.

It was underscored at the meetings that Paqpaqli għall-Istrina was a third-party event.

Dr Brooke, who at one point during her testimony asked to suspend her evidence as she was feeling drained, acknowledged she had attended two meetings called by Mr Camilleri, chairman of the foundation’s board of administrators. She said the court proceedings had been discussed and it had been stressed that they should say everything they knew and speak the truth.

Initially, Dr Brooke insisted she could not recall what had been discussed, but pressed by the judge and the victims’ lawyers, she later acknowledged it had been emphasised that the show was a third-party event.

Mr Camilleri irked the presiding judge at one stage when he insisted it had been a third-party event and he did not know the people behind it, bar perhaps one, Tonio Darmanin, whom he had met once and who was a public personality from TV.

It was pointed out to Mr Camilleri that in its reply to the victims’ applications, the foundation had said that all necessary precautions had been taken.

He was asked upon what he had based that statement. He replied it was on the basis of what had happened in previous years.

The judge reminded Mr Camilleri the reply to the applications was sworn by him and he had also taken an oath before testifying.

“You must, therefore, explain what was the logic behind your reply and the facts on which it was based. I do not think you just made up the reply just like that,” Mr Justice Mintoff noted.

A magisterial inquiry into the incident has pointed the finger at Paul Bailey, who was driving the supercar when it went out of control and ploughed into the crowd, saying he was not a professional driver and had driven at excessive speed while lacking the correct handling techniques.

The magistrate exonerated the President from responsibility, saying she was in no way involved in the organising or preparatory meetings for the event.

Mr Bailey and a number of others, including some members of the organising committee of Paqpaqli għall-Istrina, are facing criminal proceedings.