A raid was carried out on Castille as part of the investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, chief homicide inspector Keith Arnaud has confirmed.

Testifying in court, Arnaud confirmed that police raided Keith Schembri’s former offices at Castille, as well as his Melliħa home. No electronic devices were found at Castille but Schembri’s and his wife’s laptops were seized from their home and an analysis is underway with the assistance of computer forensics experts.

Arnaud was testifying in a constitutional case instituted by murder suspect Yorgen Fenech to remove him from the investigation on the grounds of his alleged closeness to Schembri.

Fenech has said that Schembri used to keep him updated on the progress of the investigation and that the then chief of staff used to tell him he had got his information directly from Arnaud.

Arnaud said that his contact with Schembri over the phone was limited to scheduling briefings about the case, and this after the courts removed then assistant commissioner Silvio Valletta from the case on the grounds of his marriage to a minister.

He said Schembri’s name never featured at all in the police investigations until Melvin Theuma was arrested last month and Schembri’s name could be heard in the recordings he took of his conversations with Fenech.

Arnaud said he was shocked when he heard the recordings, one of which includes Fenech informing Theuma of the investigation and stating that ‘Keith [Arnaud] and Silvio [Valletta] are speaking to him’. He suspects ‘him’ is a reference to Keith Schembri.

The inspector opened up about he felt his own life could well be at danger.

“If there was a leak, and it appears as though there was, and if Yorgen Fenech was involved in the murder and paid a lot of money for it… I was potentially in danger if someone knew I was zeroing in on him.”

“I was living in great danger and it’s not nice to know that people like this know what you’re doing. If they wanted to do something to a policeman, like they did to Daphne, I would have been the target.”

The case will continue tomorrow morning when Keith Schembri is set to testify.

A full account of today’s sitting can be found below: