Malta Independent

Victim’s daughter testifies in trial of her mother’s alleged killer

The trial of Lawrence Abina, who is accused of murdering Rita Ellul, continued on Saturday, as the victim’s daughter took the witness stand to give her emotional testimony.

Jessica Ellul, one of Rita’s daughters, recounted her mother’s behaviour prior to the tragic incident. On Saturday, the witness said that her mother had spoken to her about an unsettling incident in July 2020, during her niece’s First Holy Communion celebratio­n.

Rita had arrived late at the event, appearing worried, which caught Jessica’s attention.

Jessica also recalled instances where her mother seemed preoccupie­d and made unusual decisions, such as taking photos to prove her whereabout­s to Lawrence. Rita’s behaviour raised suspicions among her daughters, prompting discussion­s about her well-being, the court heard.

In November 2020, Rita had visited Jessica and told her about her relationsh­ip with Lawrence, the court heard. Rita revealed that Lawrence had left her abruptly, citing frequent arguments and fears of violence.

The victim had recounted an incident in July where she had left a gathering early because she had suspected that Lawrence was following her from Gozo to Malta. Additional­ly, Rita had also revealed that Lawrence had assaulted her in September after returning home drunk, the court heard.

The witness told the court that she had never truly accepted her mother’s partner, and neither did her sisters, but she was reluctant to confront Rita about him.

During the trial, the jury also heard about an incident of alleged abuse that had occurred in September 2020. According to testimony, Ellul’s cousin had contacted the police to report that Rita was being assaulted by her partner.

Law enforcemen­t officers had responded to the call and upon arrival, the victim informed them that Abina had returned home and proceeded to physically assault her.

The jury heard that when police had arrived, the accused was pretending to sleep before telling them that he had slapped his partner after she provoked him. Following the incident, Ellul was evaluated at the Mosta health centre, but she refused to go to Mater Dei Hospital after she was referred there.

After her visit to the health centre, Ellul was escorted to the Birkirkara police station, where she had underwent assessment by two social workers. The social workers also testified in court on Saturday.

They detailed how Rita had told them that she feared for her life, even saying that on one occasion, the accused told her that he would kill her if she didn’t shut up. When she was offered a place to stay, the victim had refused.

In an earlier sitting the jury trying Lawrence Abina for the murder of his partner heard a police inspector recall how Abina had told him that he had strangled the woman to death because he was afraid of being jailed had she survived and gone to the police.

Police inspector, Wayne Camilleri, who had interrogat­ed the accused on several occasions, told the court on Friday that during the second interrogat­ion session, Abina had confessed to having killed the woman, using hand gestures to show the police how he had used his thumbs to strangle the sleeping w o m a n . “He confessed that while he was strangling her, something inside him wanted to stop, in fact he told us he couldn’t look her in the eye and had closed his eyes while he was doing it”, said the witness. “He told us that something inside him had been urging him to stop, but he said that he knew he had reached the point of no return, because if he had stopped and Rita lived on, she would have reported him to the police and he would have ended up in jail.”

The inspector said that he hadn’t been convinced that Abina was telling the whole truth about his relationsh­ip with the victim, when interrogat­ing the accused for the first time, so he had confronted him with a domestic violence report that she had filed in 2020, in which she had said that Abina had been physically violent towards her before.

“He said ‘yes she reported me’, but that there is nothing to worry about because she was going to drop the charges”, said the inspector, adding that Abina had told him that he “still loved Rita and had nothing to hide.”

The day after Abina’s initial interrogat­ion, Camilleri said that he had also taken down a statement from one of Ellul’s closest friends, who had been with the victim in Abina’s apartment on the night before the murder.

The woman told him that she had once briefly rented an apartment in Marsalforn to Ellul and the accused, and had become friends with the victim during that time. The victim’s friend had told investigat­ors that on one phone call with Ellul she had heard the couple arguing and Ellul screaming for help. Inspector Camilleri recalled that she said that she had asked them to vacate the apartment as a result of what she had heard, fearing that a murder would take place there.

Ellul’s friend and former landlord had also told Camilleri of trouble in the victim’s relationsh­ip with the accused, after she had discovered that Abina was dating other women and having sex with prostitute­s. Ellul’s reaction to this discovery was to make up a story about meeting a man named Stefan who had been messaging her frequently, in order to prompt Abina to pay more attention to her.

He described how Abina had explained his motive, during his second interrogat­ion session. “He told us he had been thinking about killing her from the day before ... and when we asked him why, he said that when Rita was having fun with her friend and his roommate it was the first time that he had seen her happy in a very long time”, Camilleri said.

“Abina told us that Rita was unhappy with him and they were constantly arguing. She was aware of the fact that he was seeing other women and he also mentioned a man named Stefan.” Abina had told the police that Ellul had spoken to him about this Maltese man named Stefan, and that she was considerin­g leaving him for. “Of course, Lawrence didn’t know that this Stefan didn’t exist. But he said that the main reason he wanted to kill Rita Ellul was because of Stefan.”

Camilleri was cross-examined by lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace, who asked whether the police had looked into Stefan and investigat­ed whether he really was a made up character or not. The inspector replied that he had not personally looked into it, but was unable to say whether anyone else had.

“So your assessment of whether or not this Stefan is a real person is based on what you heard from Rita’s friend?”, he asked. The inspector replied that it was.