Murdered Paola Mother Was Found ‘Placed In Position To Conceal Injuries,’ Police Testify
Trial by jury began on Monday after Michael Emmanuel, an Ivorian man accused of fatally strangling his partner in 2018, was denied an insanity plea four years ago.
Michael Emmanuel, 28 at the time, was charged with murdering his partner Lourdes Agius, 35, a mother of seven, inside her Paola bedroom in September 2018.
Time of Malta reported that police inspector Sarah Kathleen Zerafa recalled a suspicious scene in the bedroom after Emmanuel went to report that his partner wasn’t waking up.
When the inspector went to investigate, Agius’ dead body was found lying on her right-hand side facing away from the door, with her left hand covering her face and neck, covering injuries.
“She was clearly placed in that position to conceal the injuries,” the witness testified.
According to Emmanuel, he was intimate with Agius, went to sleep and woke up to find her dead. He went to the Paola police station at 7am the following morning and told police that he had tried to wake up his partner, but that she wasn’t moving.
However, authorities suspected that Emmanuel had actually killed her himself, particularly since she had filed a domestic violence report just a few days earlier.
Emmanuel allegedly hit both Lourdes and her mother, using a chair to strike the mother on her back two days before the murder. Both women were taken to the hospital to treat slight injuries.
The following day, Lourdes and her brother forced Emmanuel out of the house, where he allegedly ended up sleeping on the street. The police tried to call Aġenzija Appoġġ to find somewhere for him to sleep but the agency did not answer the phone.
Emmanuel returned home and, the next day allegedly killed Lourdes.
He was charged with wilful homicide in July 2019. His lawyers however argued that he was clinically insane at the time of the crime.
A jury hearing the case threw out his plea, unanimously declaring that he was sane, opening the way for a trial by jury that began Monday.
A psychiatrist examining Emmanuel did diagnose him with acute psychosis, and paranoia about his partner.
The trial continues.
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